Theme: Faith and victory all over the world
Text: Acts 4:32-35; 1 John 5:1-6; Jn. 20:19-31
Man has a deep desire for certainty and he will go to great lengths just to be certain. For many people the only things that are certain in life are death and taxes. For the Christian, however, there are many certainties revealed in the Scriptures that are more real than what can be seen with the eyes. Indeed the Christian life is built on the divine certainties that are found in Jesus Christ – the certainty of His death and resurrection and the certainty of His victory. These divine certainties should be a constant source of joy and happiness to the Christian even when he or she gets knocked down or gets hurt. This is because as a Christian we are certain of victory and the interesting part is that this victory has already been won for us. Christ, through His death and resurrection, has restored the believer to a life of victory and made it possible for us to experience fullness of life. Man lost his life of victory and fullness of life in the Garden of Eden when the serpent deceived him to disobey God. After the fall in the Garden of Eden, enmity was created between the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman when God said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers”. This enmity has existed since that time and was clearly manifested when Jesus was born. When King Herod learned of Christ’s birth, instead of bowing down and worshipping Him, he planned to destroy Him. Herod and his allies, who were seeds of the serpent, sought with all their resourcefulness to kill the seed of the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the King and Saviour of the world. But they were unsuccessful and Christ by His death and resurrection has won a great victory for us and through Him we are assured of faith and victory all over the world.
The assurance of victory means that we are engaged in a battle. This battle is with the world and what the world does is to misrepresent the real purpose of life. The world tries to convince us that the purpose of life is to reach the top of the ladder of success and amass a lot of wealth. It tries to make us miss out on the real purpose and meaning of life, which is to develop into the image and likeness of Christ. The world has different meanings depending on the context in which it is used. It sometimes refers to the physical world, the earth, and other times to the human world, mankind. However, when the Scriptures warn us not to love the world, it is referring to an invisible spiritual system opposed to God and Christ.
The Scriptures declare, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.” Here the world is described as the lust of the flesh - passion; the lust of the eyes - possession; and the Pride of Life - position. The world still attacks us through these three areas of temptation. We have the world of entertainment, the world of finance and the world of politics. But behind what we see is an invisible system that we cannot see, a system that opposes the work of Christ on earth. The world undoubtedly dictates and influences almost every area of our lives. Today music, sports, films and fashion affect lifestyles in ways we could not even have imagined. You just have to come to Church on a Sunday morning when the national football team is playing in an international encounter to realise what a hold sports has on many people today. Too many of us have become so busy with the world that we have little time for God. Today we cannot get people to a prayer meeting, but we have no problems getting large crowds for Christian entertainment. Is this not the reason why many Christian meetings have become a form of entertainment? As Christians we are members of the human world and live in the physical world but we should not come under Satan’s system for opposing God. Only the life of faith will overcome the world. Faith will give us an attitude of victory; an attitude that believes that God has already won the battle against Satan and evil.
An attitude of victory sees the troubles of this life as only temporary. Putting our faith in God is to see God in control of everything that comes our way including the problems. Overcoming the world is not so much a matter of activity as of attitude. It is possible for a Christian to stay away from questionable amusements and doubtful places and still love the world for worldliness is a matter of the heart. Worldliness not only affects our response to the love of God; it also affects our response to the will of God. Christ’s victory is a victory over the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life - and His victory has given us victory. His victory is over the same things that trapped Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Today we experience greed in all its manifestations in a nation that prides itself as having many Christians. How is this possible when Christ has won the victory over the world? How is this possible when He has won the victory over greed and over worldly attractions and anxiety and we are beneficiaries of that victory?
The reason can only be because we refuse to trust Him completely and to walk in His victory. We can only do this when we have been born spiritually. Then we will bear the same characteristics that are the marks of belonging to the same family. Just as physical birth into a family results in many physical similarities such as the colour of the eyes, the type of hair, and the size of a person’s body, so a spiritual birth results in certain characteristics that distinguish the believer from the unbeliever. Just as it is natural for a child to love his or her earthly father so it is natural for a child of God to love his Father. The more we know about our father and his love for us, the more we will love him. We come to know our father by spending quality time with him and developing an intimate relationship with him and other members of the family. To be born means to belong to a family and it is natural for family members to love one another. Jesus Christ has won a great victory for us. He has set us free to become God’s children and enjoy a new life, but we can only enter into this new realm of life by faith. It is like the experience of a scuba diver. Scuba diving is a new sport in Ghana that is being promoted in the western region at the moment to attract tourists. It involves going under water to observe the beautiful flora and sea life. But because water is not man’s natural habitat he is not equipped for life in or under it. Before a scuba diver goes under the sea, he has to take special equipment with him so that he can breathe. God through the victory of Christ has made available to us the necessary equipment to live our new life here on earth. We need the Holy Spirit and the spiritual resources available to us through prayer, Christian fellowship and the Word of God. Without these we can never live the life of victory here on earth. We often complain about the pollution of the earth’s atmosphere but forget that the spiritual atmosphere is so polluted that Christians cannot breathe properly unless they use the resources that God has provided. We can only overcome the world by totally submitting to God. All those of worldly character pay more attention to public opinion that doing God’s will. Their fear of the world’s displeasure is so much stronger than their fear of God’s displeasure that they are completely enslaved by it. The victory of Christ implies that we cease to be enslaved and in bondage to the world in any of its forms. Like the early Christians our trust should be in God and doing His will and not in our possessions.
The life of victory is the life of Christ. As Christians we live in a real world and are faced with many difficulties and it is much easier to drift with the world, disobey God and do what we want to do. But as Christians we are born of God and “whatever is born of God overcomes the world.” This means that the Christian has the divine nature within him and victory over the world results as naturally from the spiritual or heavenly birth as coming into bondage to the world results from the natural birth. Overcoming the world is not a result of our efforts but the result of the Lord Himself within us. Our efforts are only a sign of the presence of the life of God, the Lord Jesus himself. Without that, everything else would be futile. It is not we who overcome the world, but it is He in us. All that we contribute is simply the fact that we believe in his life at work in us and so our faith overcomes the world. There is no way to become an overcomer without being born again. Being an overcomer demands that we are born again. There is not one unbeliever alive today who can honestly say that he or she is living a joyful, fulfilled, and victorious life. Such a person does not have what is necessary for a victorious life – the life of faith. The life of faith is living out of love for Christ and not out of obligation to Him. When we do something because we love doing it – or better, because we love the one we are doing it for – then we will enjoy doing it. But if it is just a job – if it is merely an obligation, then it won’t be long before we get tired of it.
Our victory is a result of faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is not faith in ourselves but faith in Christ that gives us the victory and we grow in faith as we grow in love. The more you love someone, the easier it is to trust that person. The more our love for Christ is perfected, the more our faith in Christ is also perfected because faith and love mature together. Faith implies a perception of truth, an interest in it, and a commitment to it. If we want to be victorious, it is time to start living by faith. We cannot overcome the world in our own strength. Adam and Eve learned this when they met Satan in their own strength and were defeated. To redeem man Jesus Christ came into this world and dealt with every temptation and problem including death. The person who overcomes the world is the person ‘who believes that Jesus is the Son of God’ and is identified with Him in His victory. The Scriptures declare that ‘as He is so are we in this world’. If we are identified with Him, then we should conduct ourselves as He conducted Himself. As His children we are to be on earth what He is in heaven. It is the life of God within us that makes the difference. It is Christ who overcomes; it is Christ who won the victory for us. When we put our trust in Christ we are identified with Him by the Holy Spirit and made a member of His family with fellow believers as our brothers and sisters. It is Christ who determines who the other family members are and not us. We are simply called to accept them and love them. How well are we treating our fellow family members? The answer tells us whether our old life has been buried and we have been raised to a new life of glory, a new life of faith and victory all over the world.
When Jesus died we died with Him. When He was buried we were buried with Him. And when He arose, we arose with Him so we too might walk in newness of life. When Christ ascended into heaven, we ascended with Him and are now seated with Him in heavenly places. We claim our spiritual position by faith to be able to share in His victory. Where a man sits determines how much authority he may exercise. The CEO exercises authority in the company he heads and the president over the nation he leads. The power a person exercises is determined by his position, not by his personal appearance or the way he feels. As a child of God our authority is determined by our position in Christ. Therefore as Christians we do not have to walk around defeated because Christ has made us victors. He has defeated every enemy and we share in His victory. But our victory depends on His life in us. Christianity is of no benefit to us when we fail to overcome the world. A new birth does not benefit us when it fails to bring us into the likeness of Christ and leaves us in bondage to the world and Satan. The world is at work, the flesh is at work and the prince of this world is at work but let us by faith walk in Christ’s victory. This victory has already taken place. It was accomplished with the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and is already ours in Christ. But this victory has to be appropriated in our daily experience and that can only occur as we exercise our faith. This is not to say that life won’t be without its struggles, its pains and its problems. Jesus has told us that we must expect these. The victory will not be without its cost, but it is a certain victory that has already been won. The great men and women of the Bible all won their victories by faith. They simply took God at His word and acted on it and God honoured their faith and gave them victory. Faith is not simply saying that what God says is true. True faith is acting on what God says because it is true. Victorious faith is the result of maturing love. The better we come to know and love Jesus Christ, the easier it is to trust Him with the needs and battles of life. We can only cultivate this love by first coming into a relationship with Christ and then deepening that relationship through His word and prayer and through our fellowship with God’s people. The more we know Christ the better we will love Him and the better we love Him, the more we become like Him, and the more we have faith and victory all over the world. Amen!
