Last Days

James 4:15-5:3 - Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.

1 Corinthians 5:6 - Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?

Acts 2:17 - " 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.

1 John 2:18 - Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.

Conclusions:

• To illustrate Christian holiness and discipline, Paul alludes to the prohibition against the use of leaven in the bread eaten in the Passover feast
• Leaven in Scripture usually symbolizes evil or sin, and the church here is called on to get rid of the yeast of sin because they are an unleavened batch of dough—new creations in Christ
• Peter interprets the quote from Joel as referring specifically to the latter days of the new covenant in contrast to the former days of the old covenant
• The age of Messianic fulfillment has arrived
• With other New Testament writers, John viewed the whole period beginning with Christ’s first coming as the last days
• They understood this to be the last of the days because neither former prophecy nor new revelation concerning the history of salvation indicated the coming of another era before the return of Christ
• The word last in “last days”, “last times” and “last hour” also expresses a sense of urgency and imminence
• The Christian is to be alert, waiting for the return of Christ
• John assumed his readers knew that a great enemy of God and His people will arise before Christ’s return
• That person is called antichrist, the man of lawlessness and the beast
• But prior to him, there will be many antichrists
• Antichrists are characterized by the following: (1) They deny the incarnation and that Jesus is the divine Christ; (2) they deny the Father; (3) they do not have the Father; (4) they are liars and deceivers; (5) they are many; (6) in John’s day they left the church because they had nothing in common with believers
• The antichrists referred to in John’s letter were the early Gnostics
• The anti in antichrist means against

Application:

• Have you removed the yeast of sin?
• Has God poured out His Spirit on you?
• Are you alert waiting for the return of Christ?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Conclusions derived from NIV Study Bible