Revelation 1:11 – Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: …
This business in the Ukraine prompted someone to ask me, the other day, if I thought President Putin might be the antichrist. Well no, I don’t. And just to reassure those of you that might be of a frivolous turn of mind, the same goes for President Obama. But …
But it doesn’t matter. If we’re bothering ourselves about who the antichrist is we’re worrying about the wrong thing. We’d be better off focusing on Jesus’s prescription to the churches of the Revelation.
— Ephesus — Remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first.
— Smyrna – Don’t fear, be faithful
— Pergamum – Cease compromising with those teaching or practicing non-Christian beliefs
— Thyatira – Repent of immorality
— Sardis – Wake up, and get deeper in your faith
— Philadelphia – Hold on, keep the faith
— Laodicea – Become passionate about your faith
We can gain nothing by identifying the antichrist. We cannot delay or prevent his coming. What we can do is prepare to be in the best possible shape, as he appears, to resist and stand firm until The Lord comes to claim his own.
Although the messages are addressed to the seven churches individually, they are not really specific. Any church may, from time to time, fall prey to the “sicknesses” of some of the churches or show the strength of Philadelphia. In that way, a lot of what was said to one church could be said to any church – or to all.
Whilst I might suggest that too much focus on “the” antichrist might be misguided, there’s another related issue that we certainly need to pay attention to — that of “antichrists” (with an “s”on the end). John himself wrote about these people in his first letter. 
In 1 John 2, John tells us that these antichrists come from our own churches, they are in fact opposed to the church, and that they claim to believe in God but deny that Jesus  is Christ. It’s these “little” antichrists that, perhaps, we should focus on. We should be clear that they are active amongst us today. They are Satan’s advanced forces in his war on the church. John makes it clear later in his letter — “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” ( 1John 5:19). The messages to the churches give us a great start on a defensive battle plan! Let’s focus!