1 John 5: 1-10
Overcoming The World
I have heard there are only three kinds of people in the world. There are the “I wills”, the “I won’ts,” and the “I can’ts.” The “I will do it” people accomplish and overcome every obstacle in their way; the “I won’t do it” folks oppose everything and make everything an obstacle; and the “I can’t do it” crowd fail and overcome very little in life.
The will do it kind of people are the ones that are credited with the greatest achievements of humankind, because they were willing to do what needed to be done. Some of them were even smart enough to know that what they desired to accomplish could be accomplished. It is said the rest were too dumb to know they couldn’t do it, and they did it anyway.
Charles F. Kettering, a noted scientist and inventor, believed the easiest way to overcome any obstacle is to ignore completely the possibility of failure.
One time, as he was developing this philosophy for life, he told a crowd at Denison University, in Granville, Ohio how he had once given a tough assignment to a young research worker at the General Motors laboratory.
Just to see how the young man would react to a difficult problem given to him, Mr. Kettering told the young researcher that he couldn’t examine any previously written notes or writings on the subject. If the young man had, then he would have seen all the previous statistics and experiments claimed the problem before him was impossible to solve. These notes and writings written by expert researchers were filled with comments and results that the assignment was impossible. The young research worker didn’t know this, of course, so he went to work believing that he could succeed.
He did succeed, too. He didn’t know it couldn’t be done—so he did it. It’s amazing what you can overcome if you don’t know it can’t be overcome.
I believe that John the writer of our scripture passage today has in mind these three groups of people. He pens out a litmus test for as Christians to see if we are the “I Will Do It’s”, “The I won’t Do It’s”, or the, “I Can’t Do It’s”.
John begins by telling us the ones who overcome the world are the ones that Love God and love God’s children by obeying God’s commands. He tells us the “overcomers,” which is what every Christian should be, are the ones who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and are the born again of God.
Why is it so important for us to be “overcomers” of the world? Jesus tells us in chapters two and three of Revelation in the letters to the churches. Jesus says, “To the one who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. The one who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death. To the one who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it. To the one who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— I will also give them the morning star. The one who overcomes will be dressed in white. I will never blot out their name from the book of life, but will acknowledge their name before my Father and His angels. The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from God; and I will also write on them my new name. To the one who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.”
First, as we begin, I think it’s important for us to understand how Christ and John defines overcoming in these passages. The New Testament translates this word from the Greek in many ways. The Greek word nikao means to overcome, to be victorious, to conquer, to prevail, to win your case, and to hold to one’s cause. What is it exactly are we to overcome and maintain our cause against?
John tells us. It’s the world, because there are things about the world that stand in direct opposition to the will and plan of God for our lives and the lives fo others. Just as important John tells us “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
We can hear this and read this, but fail to see what John is saying. John is saying to love God is to obey God’s commands. To obey God’s commands in faith believing in Jesus Christ enables us to overcome the world. In essence to overcome the world means to believe in Jesus Christ and as a born again believer we ought to obey God’s commands out of love for God. God’s commands of loving Him and our neighbors are not burdensome if we are indeed born again.
To overcome means to set out to conquer everything in the world that attacks, diverts, or clouds our lives and the lives of our neighbors from being obedience to the ways and commands of God. Let me continue to stress the point that we understand that this victory is made possible by faith in Jesus Christ.
I think this is why Jesus tells his disciples, “Take heart for I have overcome the world.” Jesus overcame the world, because he remained faithful, he never sinned, and he obeyed God even to the cross so that we might be saved. We can take heart because He was victorious. We can take heart, because His victory was accomplished, so that we could have victory, and so that we too can overcome the world and live as He lived in right relationship to God.
—Hazel Hartwell Simon once wrote,
Love makes obedience a thing of joy!
To do the will of one we like to please
Is never hardship, though it tax our strength;
Each privilege of service love will seize!
Love makes us loyal, glad to do or go,
And eager to defend a name or cause;
Love takes the drudgery from common work,
And asks no rich reward or great applause.
Love gives us satisfaction in our task,
And wealth in learning lessons of the heart;
Love sheds a light of glory on our toil
And makes us humbly glad to have a part.
Love makes us choose to do the will of God,
To run His errands and proclaim His truth;
It gives our hearts an eager, lilting song;
Our feet are shod with tireless wings of youth!
Let’s move our focus now to the “I won’t folks.” I won’t folks won’t get involved. They won’t volunteer and they won’t shout or cheer. They won’t lift a soul, offer a word of peace, walk a mile to share the gospel or give to feed a hungry belly. The “I won’ts” won’t forgive, but they sure will complain. They care more about money and buildings than people and relationships, they focus on rules and forget mercy, they see the color of skin and not the colorlessness of God’s love, they stand in the way, complaining every day, and they make serving the Lord a chore, and they certainly no joy erupts from their heart. They in fact appear lifeless and joyless having the appearance of a very empty soul. Often the “I won’t folks” are legalist.
It reminds me of the story of the pastor that discovered one Sunday morning that the roads were blocked and the only way he could reach church was to put in his ice skates and skate down the frozen river which he did. When he arrived the elders of the church were horrified that their preacher would skate on the Sabbath. After service they had a meeting and the pastor explained that it was either skate or not to get to the church on time. Finally one of the elders asked: “Did you enjoy skating on the ice pastor?” When the young pastor said no, all the elders then decided it was all right.
I don’t know where the idea came from that says serving God can’t be the source or the expression of the joy God has given to a person’s life. The Bible says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
I’m going to be honest. The stone statue Christianity is dying.
What do I mean by this? We once had a Catholic woman visit our congregation. She made the comment that we needed to spice up the décor and add a few statues of the saints. Our Council Chair person at the time looked at her with an amusing smile on his face. “Statues!” he said. “We have plenty of statues in our church. He led her down to the front of the church and turned her around to face the congregation. As he waved his hand over the still and motionless congregation he said, “The best thing about our statues is they are alive and clean themselves.”
The “I Can’t folks” are different story. They are always overcome. The power of faith is always overcome by their own self pitying spirit. Not only do they believe lies from every deceiving spirit that will whisper in their ear, but they will also hold onto their lies to the point that God’s grace is made meaningless in their life.
The I can’t folks sound like this, “I can’t talk to other people about Jesus. I’m not a people person. I don’t have any gifts. God can’t use me. I can’t overcome my addiction, my lust, my beliefs, or my situation. I can’t give, because I’m too poor. I can’t serve, because I’m too busy. I can’t breathe in the forgiving power of the living God, because I’m too hurt, too wounded, too mad, too sad or too worried.
“Dr. Park Tucker, former chaplain of the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, told of walking down the street in a certain city, feeling low and depressed and worried about life in general. As he walked along, he lifted his eyes for a moment to the window of a funeral home across the street. He blinked his eyes a couple of times, wondering whether his eyes were deceiving him.
But sure enough, he saw in the window of that funeral home was this sign, in large, bold words: “Why walk around half-dead? We can bury you now for $69.50. P.S. We also give green stamps.” Dr. Tucker said the humor of it was good medicine for his soul. He realized that many people are walking around half-dead, because worry has built a mountain of problems over which they believe there is no path. They have surrendered to fate instead of faith.”
We are not called to be the people who won’t, or the people who can’t. We are the people who are not only called to overcome, but we are empowered to overcome. When we accepted the life of Jesus Christ given by God on our behalf so that we might be saved, then we were saved, born again from above and sealed with the Spirit and power of the living God. It is a shame that in this day and time many Christians will claim this victory, but deny its power. They will deny its power, because they won’t use it for the obeying of God’s commandments to Love him and our neighbor. Everything Jesus taught from feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, caring for the sick, and visiting the imprisoned to the being faithful in marriage, not lusting, forgiving and showing mercy is wrapped up in these two commands.
Think about it this way for a moment. Between an airplane and every other form of locomotion and transportation there is one great difference. The horse and wagon, the automobile, the bicycle, the locomotive, the speedboat, and the great battleship—all can come to a standstill without danger, and they can all reverse their engines, or their power, and go backward.
But there is no reverse when it comes to the engine of an airplane. It cannot back up in the air. It dare not stand still in the air. If it loses its momentum and forward-drive, then it crashes. The only safety for the airplane is in its forward and upward motion. The only safe direction for the Christian to take is forward and upward. If they stop, or if they begin to slip and go backward, at that moment they are in danger, because if you are not overcoming the world, then you are being defeated by the world and if you are not overcoming, then the validity of your salvation may be in question.
As I end this message let’s not forget why Jesus said overcoming is so important.
“To the one who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. The one who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death. To the one who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it. To the one who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— I will also give them the morning star. The one who overcomes will be dressed in white. I will never blot out their name from the book of life, but will acknowledge their name before my Father and His angels. The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from God; and I will also write on them my new name. To the one who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.”
Amen.
