The visitors took the lead as early as the third minute when Mikael Lustig steered Gonzalo Higuain's shot into his own net and the Swedes found it hard to get a grip on the game as their opponents retained possession with ease.
Sweden equalised when Jonas Olsson headed home Kim Kallstrom's corner after 17 minutes, but Sergio Aguero restored Argentina's lead almost immediately with a deft chip.
The South Americans went 3-1 up in the 23rd minute when Higuain was on hand to fire home after Andreas Isaksson could only parry Messi's powerful shot.
"We scored the goals quickly and that gave us calm to get good control of the ball. The important thing was to try to play well and win," Aguero told reporters.
"We had a good match. Pity about the last goal which embelishes a result that should have had a bigger winning margin for us," said midfielder Javier Mascherano.
"It was as good as I'd expected, a skillful side, many skillful individuals," Sweden coach Erik Hamren told a news conference.
"You can choose to park the bus and chance on the counter, but we decided to try to play. The problem when you meet such individually skillful players is that if you lose the ball as we did for the first goal, you get punished.
"We were a little unlucky that it hit Lustig's foot when we'd backed up the way we should have," said Hamren, who professed himself happy that his side had "won" the second half against tough opposition for the third game in a row.
Ibrahimovic's replacement Mathias Ranegie made little difference to the Swedes and there was no shortage of chances for Argentina in the second half.
With Sweden's main threat coming from Olsson's aerial ability at set pieces, Argentina dominated possession for long spells with their quick passing, leaving their hosts chasing shadows.
