There is that guy in Greek mythology, I think, that pushes the boulder up the hill only to have it roll back down. He does this continuously. He pushes the boulder up the hill, and then it rolls back down, over and over and over without end. Doesn’t it feel that sometimes you are pushing a boulder up a hill only to have it roll back down? Sometimes, it even seems that the boulder rolls right over us on the way down the hill. It just seems that sometimes life is brutal to us. Even, as Christians, we sometimes face this mess. The good news for Christians is that the world will never destroy us.
The world has tried to destroy Christians and Christianity, but it has failed every single time. The history of the Christian Church shows that the world has tried to silence Christians and stamp them out, but they were not successful. We read in the book of Acts that when the persecution of the Christians began in Jerusalem the flame of Christianity spread like a fire in a parched forest. The world has tried to overcome us, but it cannot.
The world is opposed to God and everything he stands for. The world denies that Jesus is the Son of God. The world denies that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. The world denies that Jesus rose from the dead. The world denies that Jesus can take away our sins. The world takes Jesus and puts him the same category as Mohammed, Ghandi, Buddha, the Dali Lama, Confucius and other so-called great teachers. Remember what C. S. Lewis said, “Jesus is either who he says he is, or he is a lunatic.”
Turn with me to 1 John 5.
Read 1 John 5:1-5.
Did you ever notice that in school when the teacher said something three times it was pretty important? It seems to be a trait of humanity. In Isaiah 6, we read that the seraphim said to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.” They said the word “holy” three times. Baseball fans will remember the call in the 1951 playoffs when the announcer proclaimed, “The Giants win the pennant. The Giants win the pennant. The Giants win the pennant.” When we want to emphasize something we tend to say it three times. We do it unconsciously. We say to ourselves, “Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy.”
When John uses the phrase “overcomes the world” three times in two verses, it must be important. I guess in the strictest sense of grammatical construction these three are not identical. The second one refers to something that happened at a definite point in time, while the first and last refer to an ongoing process. Nonetheless, the usage of the phrase show us this is something to pay attention to.
Faith that overcomes
The question is “How can we overcome the world?” The answer is “faith.” That raises the question, “Faith in what?”
We put our faith in a lot of things. We put faith in the stock market, at least three or four years ago we did. Everyone was trying to get rich in dot-com stock frenzy. Then the bottom fell out, and the shares of this-or-that.com were worth less than the paper they were printed on.
We have faith in our careers or jobs. But, just ask the employees that used to work at Enron how much faith they have in their jobs.
Sometimes we put our faith in government. Government is no better than the people who run it. Governments fail and fall. Power comes and goes for governments and political parties. Whoever is in power today may not be in power tomorrow.
The answer to the question, “Faith in what?” is quite simply, “Faith that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God.”
Jesus, as the Son of God, has overcome the world. When Adam and Eve sinned, sin and death entered the world. Neither sin nor death was part of God’s plan for the world when he created it. God’s plan was that we would live in a close relationship with him. When Adam and Eve sinned it broke that plan. Sins are those actions we take that defy God’s will for us. Sin is also when we shake our fist at God and tell him we are the boss. Death is the result of sin. Our bodies were corrupted by sin and as a consequence of sin they break down and we die. Disease and physical ailments are the result of the sin of the human race.
Jesus came and conquered both of these menaces. The world humiliated Jesus. They spit on him. They beat him. They mocked him. They cursed him. They hated him. They killed him. They buried him. Three days after they buried him, he rose again. He conquered death. He also paid the penalty for our sin. If we accept for ourselves what he has done for us, sin has no power in our life. Jesus had victory over death and sin.
The last phrase of verse 4 says, “And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” This is the phrase that talks about a specific action at a specific time. Our faith in Jesus as the Son of God overcomes the world. The world is constantly telling us that there is nothing to the claims of Jesus. It tells us Jesus was a liar. Have you ever noticed that the world talks an awful lot about God, but rarely says anything about Jesus? Jesus’ name is most often said in the context of an exclamation. We hear people talk about God. “I believe in God,” is a favorite saying of people. Everyone believes in God. I think the polls show us that over 90% of Americans believe in God.
When we put our faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, we overcome the world. We overcome the thinking that there is nothing to the claims of Jesus. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I have faith in that statement. I have faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. To believe that “Jesus is the Christ,” as verse 1 says is to believe that he is the one who was chosen by God to pay for the sins of the world. The word Christ means the same things as the word Messiah. They mean “the anointed one.” Jesus is his name. Christ is his title. He was chosen to pay for our sins. When we have faith that he is that, we have overcome all the messed up thinking of the world. It happens at a moment in time. It is when we are born of God. Our birth records show a moment in time when we were born. Maybe it was at 11:12 A.M. At that moment we were born. At a moment in time we are born of God and overcome the world.
Continual overcoming
When our initial act of faith in Jesus as the Christ is complete, he comes to live in us. Jesus then sustains our life. It is not enough to rely on one act of faith in the past. Christ comes into our lives, and we act on that. Jesus sustains us.
I used to be an avid runner. I was always intrigued by the marathon. I never ran a marathon, but it always amazed be that these world class athletes could sustain a pace for 26.2 miles that I could barely sustain for one mile. The time for each of their miles was equal to the time for one of my miles.
One thing they tell you in running, especially long distances, is to drink plenty of water. You need that in you body or it will quit working properly. Then you have a mess of problems. If you have ever seen footage of a marathon, you will notice that all along the course there are tables of water. The runners will come by and grab a cup of water and drink it. It is not enough for the runner to drink a bunch of water before the race. By the time they get to the middle of the race the water they drank before will be of no use. They need water throughout the course to sustain their efforts.
We need refreshing from Jesus through the course of life to sustain us. Something that happened in 1983 is of little use today. It doesn’t matter how much Jesus I got when I knelt at an altar at VBS when I was 9 years old. I need Jesus everyday.
We are in a battle with the world. Now, let me define what is meant by the “world.” The world is the hostility toward God. It is not the people of the world that we battle. It is the hatred for God that we battle. Paul writes in Ephesians, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic power over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Our battle is not with people. Our battle is for people.
Propaganda is always a part of war. During the recent war in Iraq, “Baghdad Bob,” as he was called, daily told us that the Americans were no where near the city of Baghdad. He told us that the Iraqi military was brutally pounding the Americans. What was happening was that he was trying to influence the thinking of people. He was trying to win them over to his way of thinking. The problem was that he was full of lies. It was hard to believe him when, as he was speaking, an American tank was rolling down the street behind him.
The good news is that we have truth on our side. We have the wonderful truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and with faith in him we can overcome the world. The idea is that we get people to think like Christ.
The way we get people to notice is through love. The word “love” appears five times in the first three verses of this chapter. We are to love God. We love God by loving others and obeying his commandments.
When John says, in verse 3, “And his commandments are not burdensome,” he doesn’t mean that we are to take them lightly. It means that out of love for him we will do whatever he asks us to do.
This reminds me of a story. This happened in the days before school buses and mass transit. This one man noticed that day after day there was a boy of about ten carrying a smaller boy on his back. The man observed this for several days, thinking that one day he would see the older boy walking by himself. Finally, the man couldn’t stand it any longer. He went up to the boys one morning and said, “Why are you carrying this other boy on your back? That must be an awful burden.” The older boy responded, “It is no burden at all; this is my brother. He is lame and cannot walk on his own.” The older brother’s love his little brother was so great that he could do nothing except carry his brother to school. It was not a load on his back. It was a labor of love.
When Jesus is in us, our love for him is so great that whatever he asks of us is no load on our back. It is a labor of love.
Another aspect of this is that Jesus gives us the strength to do what he asks us to do. He doesn’t ask us to anything without giving us the means to do it.
It is only through Jesus
Verse 5 asks, “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes in that Jesus is the Son of God?” This is a rhetorical question. The answer should be obvious, “No one.”
It is Jesus who is our protector, defender and supplier. He protects us from the world. That’s not to say that things won’t go wrong or bad. He keeps us protected from more than we can bear. He protects us from the pollution of sin in the world.
Have you been following the S.A.R.S. deal in the news? This is a new respiratory disease. There is a lot that is not yet known about this disease. You notice pictures from the Far East, in places like Hong Kong and Singapore, that people are wearing surgical masks in an effort to prevent the disease from coming into their bodies.
Jesus is our protection from the contamination of sin. The key is to make sure he is where he should be in our lives. We cannot let the mask fall off. We must walk with Jesus continually to continue to overcome the world through him.
Our walk with Jesus also shows that we are worthy of his name.
The great general Alexander the Great was on one of his many missions to conquer the world. He was renowned for his bravery in the heat of battle. He was a hero and an inspiring leader. During one battle in particular, there was a man in the army who was lagging behind the rest of the force. He was a bit cowardly and fearful of entering battle. Alexander the Great approached this man. He asked, “What is your name?” “Alexander,” was the reply. Alexander the Great replied, “Sir, either get in the battle or change your name.” Alexander the Great was a great general and he didn’t want anyone to tarnish the name of Alexander.
We as Christians should do nothing to tarnish the name of Christ. We are Christians. We should either get in the battle or change our name. After all, the word “Christian” means “little Christ.”
While it is difficult to live in the world, we achieve victory through our faith in Christ. To bear the name of Christ is to uphold the name. If we are going to say that we are Christians, then we should conduct ourselves like Christ conducted himself.
Application
If we do not believe that Jesus is who he says he was, then this is all for nothing. To truly believe in him is to accept him as you Savior.
To only way to overcome the world is a living and growing faith in him. Mere mental acknowledgement is not enough. We need to cling to Jesus.
The victory is over sin and death. It is not a victory to an easy life. Just because we believe in Jesus doesn’t mean he is going to park a Mercedes in our driveway.
Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe he is who he says he is? Do you believe that he came and conquered death and sin? You can overcome the world today, by asking him into your life. The Bible tells us that each of us has the faith to accept Jesus.
That old hymn tells us, “Faith is the victory! Faith is the victory! O glorious victory that overcomes the world!”
Faith in Jesus, and only in Jesus, can overcome the world right now. A growing faith in Jesus, and only in Jesus, can help us to keep overcoming the world.
