He Who Overcomes
Notes
Transcript
4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
In this passage we see a word spoken three times. What is that word?
OVERCOME.
Everyone who is born of God overcomes the world.
We victoriously overcome by our faith.
Only believers in Jesus can overcome the world.
But what does it mean to overcome? Or what does it mean to overcome the world for that matter?
Many believe that Christians are being tested now by this Coronavirus outbreak and that the test is seen in remaining faithful and surviving the crisis and coming out of it with our faith unchanged.
Which means that if you believe in God when you entered the crisis and exited the crisis still believing in God, you had already overcome.
So in other words, if this is the real meaning of overcoming, all it takes is to ride out the crisis, weather the storm.
So Christians equate overcoming with surviving.
Overcoming = Surviving
To get the right meaning of what it really means to overcome, overcoming this current crisis we always must start with the words of the Lord Jesus:
38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
What does this mean? You see the cross is where the LOrd died, so when He tells us to take up our cross, it alludes to a certain dying, to really follow Jesus, we must first experience a form of dying - we must die to ourselves.
Story goes of one man who saw his friend hanging from a tree with a rope around his waist. He asked the man what are you doing? The man hanging said: I am killing myself! The other man said you have to put the rope around your neck, not your waist to kill yourself. The man hanging from the tree said, Oh, I tried that but when I put the rope around my neck, I can't breathe.
Taking up your cross is dying to ourselves and not making up other doctrines or making excuses why you are not doing it like Jesus said.
What does it really take to overcome?
Image of overcome here.
To prevail and to be victorious.
To prevail — to prevail - the meaning of this word is to prove ourselves more powerful than opposing forces; to be victorious!
From this definition we see what “overcoming” is not...
Overcoming is not...
a. A passive stance
b. Just a defensive posture
The word overcome is not a passive stance, it is not just waiting it out and surviving a global crisis,
It is not passive, we should be actively being victorious doing the work of God. The apostle John said in our main text today “and this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith!”
Victory here is a militant expression, like fighting a war and winning. Remember in our series on Spiritual warfare (which we will pick up again) we have to take up the shield of faith!
But while we are protecting our bodies from the arrows of the enemy, we are also moving forward.
The second meaning of the word overcome is to conquer.
We have to conquer enemy territories for Jesus.
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
What do we conquer?
I like the New Living Translation that says:
37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
So how do we overcome by being active and being on the offensive?
I would take this current crisis with the Coronavirus as an example.
We are in a calamity. In our my previous messages I talked about God sounding an alarm to the world, warning us of the horrors of our sins, God sending the world specific divine judgements and I talked about the third reason - raising our awareness to the second coming of Christ.
But there are two other reasons that the Lord allowed this outbreak to happen which concerns His church and we will find this from His word.
What God is doing to His church through the Coronavirus:
Unsettling the Church to reach the Nations.
Spurs us to Good works in the middle of Danger.
1. Unsettling the church to reach the nations
The churches in North America has become like perennial plants that have taken root where they have been planted and stayed.
A great Theologian said that, his last name is Navarro.. just kidding, I just meant that was an original insight that I got from the Lord..
What I mean is that, we confuse church planting with being like plants taking root in one place and just staying there..
The church is a dynamic organism that grows and also spreads.
Now a real great Theologian said this, his name is John Piper:
In the coronavirus God is loosening the roots of settled Christians, all over the world, to make them free for something new and radical and to send them with the gospel of Christ to the unreached peoples of the world. - John Piper.
Connecting the coronavirus with missions may seem counterintuitive, a very strange idea, because at this time the coronavirus is shutting down travel and migration and therefore affecting the sending of missionaries around the world.
But this is just short term. And God does not think short term. God has a long term strategy for missions! Praise His Holy Name!
You see God has used the suffering and upheaval of history to move his church to places it needs to go. He will do it again as part of the long-term effect of this pandemic.
Before Jesus ascended to heaven, on the Mt of Olives, He gave instructions to his disciples:
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Remember that sequence of the path of the gospel of Jesus according to Jesus, first it starts from Jerusalem, then it travels to all of Judea, then Samaria and to the end of the earth.
Remember that say it with me, the path of the gospel: Jerusalem, all of Judea, Samaria, end of the earth.. repeat (tongue twister)
Image here of the Path of the Gospel.
But for a while, the gospel has remained in Jerusalem. It was like the gospel just was stuck there, it was not even moving to the regions around Judea and Samaria.
But God has other plans, Hallelujah!
So what happened? It took the coming of adversity, the surge of persecution to move the gospel out of Jerusalem. It started with the murder of the first Christian martyr, Stephen and the subsequent severe persecution under a pharisee named Saul.
You see...
Man’s adversity is God’s opportunity.
1 Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
Note, regions of Judea and Samaria, just like the Lord Jesus had commanded them to take the gospel. Now, what did the church do in the regions of Judea and Samaria? Jumping to verse 4:
4 Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.
Man’s adversity is God’s opportunity.
God did not stop there, so the gospel started when the church became Jesus’ witnesses in Jerusalem, then in Judea then in Samaria.. remember the sequence you repeated earlier? What about the “ends of the earth?”
Hahaha, I am so excited about what I am going to say next.. God is so great.. He is worthy of all our praise!
How did God start taking the gospel to the ends of the earth? Some of you may already know the answer, but God works in wondrous ways,, . who has known and understood the mind of the Lord?
What happened is that the very next chapter in the Book of Acts, in chapter 9, this same wicked pharisee that led the persecution of Christian whose name was Saul was converted to Christianity and became the very apostle Paul who God chose to start taking the gospel to the ends of the earth!
God’s wisdom.. it is almost like God has a sense of humor… O Christ, the wisdom of God and the power of God! (overwhelmed)
Man’s adversity is God’s opportunity.
This setback is setting the stage for a mighty comeback.
That while travel is restricted God is already setting the stage for more missionaries being prepared for missions, God is using the internet through Vision Schools and prayer conferences that are being held simultaneously around the world.
That I believe when the restrictions are finally lifted it will also lift up a huge gate that will be like a mighty torrents of living water reaching all the unreached nations for Christ.
Jesus is still accomplishing His plan that we become witnesses to the ends of the earth until now!
So now, how do this tie back to our original idea of being overcomers?
If God has a plan, so does the devil.
The devil will oppose this movement of the gospel and will try with all his might to use fear to keep the restrictions of travel that will prevent missions.
He will even try to prolong the restrictions of church gathering. There are government officials those in high places who are now wanting to keep the restrictions to public gatherings for years.
Now listen to me on this, I am not promoting the quick reopening of our facilities like nothing happened, we know the risks, and out of love for people we are going to restart our physical gathering wisely, we will do it in phases, in stages, we will be wise — in reality a lot of people will not be comfortable to be back and we see that.. we will continue our livestreaming.
But, we should be vigilant because we are at war. We need to have our spiritual eyes open to the devil’s plan to use this pandemic to close down churches. There are evil forces in high places of government that hate Christianity.
We are not unaware of what is coming and we will not fear?
Fear what, Ramon?
Are you ready for the big P?
Persecution.
This is where secondly, God...
2. Spurs us to Good works in the middle of Danger.
Jesus called us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world… That means we as His church brings flavor to the world and light in this present darkness.. but many Christians do not see the whole context of that,, before Jesus said that we are to be the salt of the earth and light of the world in Matthew 5 verses 13 to 14,, in the same breath without break he said these from verses 10 -12
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
We will be overcomers as a church:
By being Christ’s witness in face of persecution and danger.
Through our proclamation.
Through our actions.
I want to tell you this story
Rodney Stark, in his book The Triumph of Christianity, points out that in the first centuries of the Christian church the “truly revolutionary principle was that Christian love and charity must extend beyond the boundaries of family and even those of faith, to all in need.”
Two great plagues struck the Roman Empire in AD 165 and 251. Outside of the Christian church, there was no cultural or religious foundation for mercy and sacrifice. “There was no belief that the gods cared about human affairs.”
And “mercy was regarded as a character defect and pity as a pathological emotion: because mercy involves providing unearned help or relief, it is contrary to justice.”Therefore, while a third of the empire was perishing from disease, physicians fled to their country estates.
Those with symptoms were cast out of homes. Priests forsook the temples. But Stark observes, “Christians claimed to have answers and, most of all, they took appropriate actions.”
The answers included the forgiveness of sins through Christ and the hope of eternal life beyond death. This was a precious message in a season of medical helplessness and utter hopelessness.
As for the actions, large numbers of Christians cared for the sick and the dying.
Toward the end of the second plague, Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria wrote a letter, extolling the members of his church: Most of our brothers showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy.
This is the church of Jesus Christ.
We overcome by our Christian witness by the proclamation of the Gospel and through our actions ---- in face of persecution and risks.
Listen, I am not praying for persecution to come. We should actually pray for persecution of the church not to come!
But remember: Man’s adversity is God’s opportunity.
If it takes a new wave of persecution to spread the gospel. Will we be ready? This is a challenge for all of us.
Will you take up the call to overcome?
This may sound, like an eye opener and very alien to most of you. But to many churches in the middle east, in China, North Korea in other parts of Africa, persecution is a normal part of the daily life of the church.
Will we be ready to be the persecuted church of Jesus when that’s what it takes for God to accomplish His purpose?
It takes God-given courage to obey. And God has a promise to those who will prevail.
Last week, my message was about Jesus’ message to the seven churches in the book of Revelation and for every message, He has a promise to those who will overcome. Every promise starts with “He who overcomes...”
Pick and choose your favorite promise among them, but all them can be yours.
In the same text that I read today from first John, we are told God’s commandments are not burdensome.. And I take that to mean.. it is all worth it.. The eternal rewards are far greater.
For the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us!
Let us be a church that overcomes!
Overcoming is not surviving the quarantine and going back to the status quo when all this is over, God wants us to come out this better by our proclamation, reaching the unreached and by our Godly works that will glorify our Father in heaven.
Let’s be a church of overcomers!
