A Tour Through John, Lesson 40

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/tour-john-lesson-40/" target="_blank"><strong>website.</strong></a></p><p>18 Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us.</p><ul><li>It is the last hour (v.18).<ul><li>John is stressing the <i>theological urgency </i>of the situation, more than the <i>chronological nearness </i>of the end of the world.</li><li>At any rate, all disciples must always be ready for the end; Jesus promised he would come as a thief.</li><li>The precise meaning of the “last hour” (v.18) is difficult to pin down.<ul><li>Maybe it refers to the end of the world. This view is not without obvious difficulties; it does, however, follow on smoothly from verse 17. If this is correct, are we still in the last hour? Did it come and go, or are we still “on stand-by” till the end?</li><li>Some hold that it refers to the final years before the Destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 24), in which case these were the final days of Judaism, or Christianity within Judaism—enjoying imperial protection. Things were to heat up considerably for the Christians after 70 AD!</li><li>Perhaps it alludes to the last hour in the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:12), and thus refers to the influx of Gentiles into the church. Could the Holy Spirit be revealing that, for the Christians in Asia Minor, persecution might soon eradicate the faith in that part of the world? In other words, it’s the “last hour” locally, not globally, for these disciples.</li><li>Or maybe this is a reference to Paul’s prophecy in 2 Timothy 4:3.</li><li>Or yet again to Jesus’ oracle (Matthew 24:12-14, 24). Many passages speak of disciples being led away from the truth.</li></ul></li></ul>