Before we talk about Christ the Overcomer, we ought to briefly talk about why Christ needs to overcome at all. And what must Christ overcome?After seeing the horrors of the twentieth century, the Jewish Holocaust preeminent, but the many other wars and the devastation that man has brought against man, it is apparent that evil abounds. Not only that, but the decay of ethics and integrity continues. The housing bubble and the economic collapse of 2008 and 2009 in large part was due to the greed of everyone who thought that they could get something for nothing. Scandal after scandal seems to befall those in political office. The continual increase in sexual sin, and I'm not just talking about the rise of homosexuality. The rise of sex outside of marriage and the increase of promiscuity. More and more children born out of wedlock. More and more broken marriages and single parent homes.
There's road rage and murder-suicides and suicide bombers and child abuse and child pornography and modern-day slavery. Problems and problems and more problems. There is a whirlwind of bad news every day. It just keeps coming. There is something wrong with our society. There is something wrong with our world.
Check out this chart from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. The fact that our nation needs a Bureau of Justice Statistics kind of says it all up front. There has been an explosion of incarceration in the last 30 years. The rate of incarceration has increased much faster than the rate of population growth. In 1920, about 1 in 1000 Americans were in prison. In 2010, it is 1 in 135. If you include probation, it changes to 1 in 72.
I'm not trying to adapt the facts to fit a story, so I will tell you that crime rates at the present have also declined slightly from the peak in the late 70's to the early 90's. However, they have only come down to the rates of the late 60's and the early 70's. So, more and more people are going to prison just to maintain the same crime rates.
I probably spent a couple of hours yesterday looking at statistics. In summary, I would just say that it was heartbreaking. And, I think that the evidence was pretty clear, evil is increasing.
And, in order to perpetrate evil, it takes people. People are acting out these crimes against each other.
Before you get too excited and self-righteous, the Bible is very clear on this. We all have the potential or even the predisposition to be lawbreakers. Romans 3:10-12 says
As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Romans 3:10-12
We all have an infection that causes us to do wrong things. The infection that we have is called sin. Sin is disobedience to God. Sin is breaking “the rules.”
This lawbreaking sin disposition has two main consequences. The first one we already talked about. We do hurtful and even unspeakable things to one another. Our sin separates us from each other. The second consequence is even more serious. This sin disposition, our wrongdoing, separates us from God.
Separation from God in this life will ultimately cause us to be separated from God after we die. Separation from God after you die means that you will face God's judgment. He will judge whether or not you are able to come to heaven on your own merit, by your own goodness. Are you good enough to get into heaven on your own?
God is holy. Holy means perfect, so saying God is holy means that God is perfect. God lives in heaven. Heaven is a perfect place. Revelation 21:27 speaks of the new heaven and the Holy City of God. It says,
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, Revelation 21:27
The imperfect cannot live together with the perfect. Sin is like a wasting disease. If one sin was allowed into heaven, it would destroy all the beauty and all the perfection. Therefore, you must be perfect if you want to get to heaven on your own.
Jesus was very clear in the Sermon on the Mount on how high the standard was to get to God. Not only is murder a sin subject to judgment, anyone who is angry at his brother is subject to judgment (Matthew 6:21-22). Likewise, adultery is sin, but Jesus explained that if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 6:27-28).
So what will happen if we depend on our own goodness to get to heaven? The prophet Isaiah wrote
… all our righteous acts are like filthy rags … Isaiah 64:6
We cannot get to heaven by our own goodness. No matter how many good deeds that we do, we cannot get to heaven. But there is hope. Someone has overcome these obstacles both our separation from God and the evil of this world.
And that's what we're talking about today. Jesus Christ the Overcomer.
Let's read John 16:33, one of the bedrock verses for the Christian,
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Jesus himself has proclaimed it. He has overcome the world. Good news! We do not have to be consumed with the cares of this life. We do not have to be weighed down by worry and doubt about what tomorrow will bring. We may have peace and joy. Jesus has overcome the world.
How has Jesus overcome the world? Galatians 3:22 explains,
… the whole world is a prisoner of sin … Galatians 3:22
That kind of sums up what is wrong with the world. Why does evil continue to increase? Why do more people have to be sent to jail to keep the crime rate the same? The whole world is a prisoner of sin, of law breaking. Now,
Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. I John 2:1-2
What is an atoning sacrifice? The atoning part refers to reparation for an offense or injury or a means of reconciliation. The sacrifice part refers to Jesus death. Hebrews 9 says,
… without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness … so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Hebrews 9:22,28
We will still face troubles in this life, but we have the knowledge that Jesus has overcome the world. Jesus did not come only to set us free from the fears of the trouble in this life. He has also come to set us free from the bondage of sin and death!
Let's go back to the verse we read from Revelation 21 earlier.
Nothing impure will ever enter it [the Holy City of God], nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. Revelation 21:27
What were lambs used for? They were used for sacrifices for sin. Who is the capital “L” Lamb? Jesus Christ. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life can get into heaven. How can you get your name written in the Lamb's book of life? Revelation 3:5 says,
He who overcomes will … be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. Revelation 3:5
Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. I John 5:4
I know that you know it, but in light of what we've just discussed, let's read John 3:16,
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
To get our names written in the Lamb's book of life, to enter heaven, to enjoy eternity with God, we only have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. That is pretty easy. If you have not believed in Jesus, I invite you to do that now. Let's bow our heads together and pray.
Lord, you know the condition of our hearts. You know each detail about us down to the number of hairs on our heads. We confess that we have all sinned. God, I confess that I am a sinner. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God. We believe that He died on the cross for our sins. We thank you for the Lord's Supper. Thank you for the symbol of your body broken for us in the bread, and the symbol of your blood spilled out for us in the juice. May we remember daily the sacrifice you made for us that we might live with you forever. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Before we take communion, I want to share something about the life we get to live after we have trusted Jesus and believed in Him because there will be doubts that creep in.
Several of the verses I shared were about overcoming. Both Jesus overcoming and us overcoming the world. It turns out that the Greek word for overcome is nikao. The name Nicholas is derived from this Greek word. It's also where we get the name for a brand of tennis shoe. You may or may not have heard of it. Nike? Nicholas means overcomer or victor or conqueror. And, we've already talked about how we are overcomers if we believe in Jesus.
There is a special word used to describe us as believers. It is found only one time in the whole Bible. It's hupernikao or hypernikao: super overcomers, more than conquerors. You can find it in Romans 8
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans 8:31-35, 37
There is abundant good news in Jesus. Did you catch the part in the middle there? “Christ Jesus who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” Jesus is alive, and He's on our side. Even after we have believed in Him, if we sin, Jesus is there reconciling and making things right between us and God. Why does He do that? Elsewhere in Scripture, it says that Jesus is our brother and God is our Father. (Hebrews 2:5-18) This belief in Jesus is a relationship. And just like it says in John 3:16, God loves us.
I started with the prison statistics, and they were pretty discouraging. I want to end with more prison statistics, but ones that can give us hope. A study was presented in Justice Quarterly which is the Journal of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. There is a Christian ministry to prisoners called Prison Fellowship. You may have heard of it. They sponsor the Angel Tree outreach which brings gifts to the children of prisoners at Christmas. The study was performed to see the influence of the Prison Fellowship programs on the inmates' adjustment to prison life and the recidivism rate upon release. The authors of this study wrote
We found no overall difference between PF inmates and non-PF inmates on measures of institutional adjustment or recidivism. Certain differences emerge however, after controlling for level of participation in PF programs. Participation in two of the PF programs, the in-prison seminars and the life plan seminars, failed to influence either institutional adjustment or recidivism. However, the inmates most actively involved in PF Bible studies (high participants), operationalized as attending as few as 10 or more Bible studies over the course of one year, differed not only from the non-PF matched group but also from medium and low PF participants.
Before you get too excited and self-righteous, the Bible is very clear on this. We all have the potential or even the predisposition to be lawbreakers. Romans 3:10-12 says
As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Romans 3:10-12
We all have an infection that causes us to do wrong things. The infection that we have is called sin. Sin is disobedience to God. Sin is breaking “the rules.”
This lawbreaking sin disposition has two main consequences. The first one we already talked about. We do hurtful and even unspeakable things to one another. Our sin separates us from each other. The second consequence is even more serious. This sin disposition, our wrongdoing, separates us from God.
Separation from God in this life will ultimately cause us to be separated from God after we die. Separation from God after you die means that you will face God's judgment. He will judge whether or not you are able to come to heaven on your own merit, by your own goodness. Are you good enough to get into heaven on your own?
God is holy. Holy means perfect, so saying God is holy means that God is perfect. God lives in heaven. Heaven is a perfect place. Revelation 21:27 speaks of the new heaven and the Holy City of God. It says,
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, Revelation 21:27
The imperfect cannot live together with the perfect. Sin is like a wasting disease. If one sin was allowed into heaven, it would destroy all the beauty and all the perfection. Therefore, you must be perfect if you want to get to heaven on your own.
Jesus was very clear in the Sermon on the Mount on how high the standard was to get to God. Not only is murder a sin subject to judgment, anyone who is angry at his brother is subject to judgment (Matthew 6:21-22). Likewise, adultery is sin, but Jesus explained that if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 6:27-28).
So what will happen if we depend on our own goodness to get to heaven? The prophet Isaiah wrote
… all our righteous acts are like filthy rags … Isaiah 64:6
We cannot get to heaven by our own goodness. No matter how many good deeds that we do, we cannot get to heaven. But there is hope. Someone has overcome these obstacles both our separation from God and the evil of this world.
And that's what we're talking about today. Jesus Christ the Overcomer.
Let's read John 16:33, one of the bedrock verses for the Christian,
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Jesus himself has proclaimed it. He has overcome the world. Good news! We do not have to be consumed with the cares of this life. We do not have to be weighed down by worry and doubt about what tomorrow will bring. We may have peace and joy. Jesus has overcome the world.
How has Jesus overcome the world? Galatians 3:22 explains,
… the whole world is a prisoner of sin … Galatians 3:22
That kind of sums up what is wrong with the world. Why does evil continue to increase? Why do more people have to be sent to jail to keep the crime rate the same? The whole world is a prisoner of sin, of law breaking. Now,
Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. I John 2:1-2
What is an atoning sacrifice? The atoning part refers to reparation for an offense or injury or a means of reconciliation. The sacrifice part refers to Jesus death. Hebrews 9 says,
… without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness … so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Hebrews 9:22,28
We will still face troubles in this life, but we have the knowledge that Jesus has overcome the world. Jesus did not come only to set us free from the fears of the trouble in this life. He has also come to set us free from the bondage of sin and death!
Let's go back to the verse we read from Revelation 21 earlier.
Nothing impure will ever enter it [the Holy City of God], nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. Revelation 21:27
What were lambs used for? They were used for sacrifices for sin. Who is the capital “L” Lamb? Jesus Christ. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life can get into heaven. How can you get your name written in the Lamb's book of life? Revelation 3:5 says,
He who overcomes will … be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. Revelation 3:5
Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. I John 5:4
I know that you know it, but in light of what we've just discussed, let's read John 3:16,
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
To get our names written in the Lamb's book of life, to enter heaven, to enjoy eternity with God, we only have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. That is pretty easy. If you have not believed in Jesus, I invite you to do that now. Let's bow our heads together and pray.
Lord, you know the condition of our hearts. You know each detail about us down to the number of hairs on our heads. We confess that we have all sinned. God, I confess that I am a sinner. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God. We believe that He died on the cross for our sins. We thank you for the Lord's Supper. Thank you for the symbol of your body broken for us in the bread, and the symbol of your blood spilled out for us in the juice. May we remember daily the sacrifice you made for us that we might live with you forever. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Before we take communion, I want to share something about the life we get to live after we have trusted Jesus and believed in Him because there will be doubts that creep in.
Several of the verses I shared were about overcoming. Both Jesus overcoming and us overcoming the world. It turns out that the Greek word for overcome is nikao. The name Nicholas is derived from this Greek word. It's also where we get the name for a brand of tennis shoe. You may or may not have heard of it. Nike? Nicholas means overcomer or victor or conqueror. And, we've already talked about how we are overcomers if we believe in Jesus.
There is a special word used to describe us as believers. It is found only one time in the whole Bible. It's hupernikao or hypernikao: super overcomers, more than conquerors. You can find it in Romans 8
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans 8:31-35, 37
There is abundant good news in Jesus. Did you catch the part in the middle there? “Christ Jesus who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” Jesus is alive, and He's on our side. Even after we have believed in Him, if we sin, Jesus is there reconciling and making things right between us and God. Why does He do that? Elsewhere in Scripture, it says that Jesus is our brother and God is our Father. (Hebrews 2:5-18) This belief in Jesus is a relationship. And just like it says in John 3:16, God loves us.
I started with the prison statistics, and they were pretty discouraging. I want to end with more prison statistics, but ones that can give us hope. A study was presented in Justice Quarterly which is the Journal of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. There is a Christian ministry to prisoners called Prison Fellowship. You may have heard of it. They sponsor the Angel Tree outreach which brings gifts to the children of prisoners at Christmas. The study was performed to see the influence of the Prison Fellowship programs on the inmates' adjustment to prison life and the recidivism rate upon release. The authors of this study wrote
We found no overall difference between PF inmates and non-PF inmates on measures of institutional adjustment or recidivism. Certain differences emerge however, after controlling for level of participation in PF programs. Participation in two of the PF programs, the in-prison seminars and the life plan seminars, failed to influence either institutional adjustment or recidivism. However, the inmates most actively involved in PF Bible studies (high participants), operationalized as attending as few as 10 or more Bible studies over the course of one year, differed not only from the non-PF matched group but also from medium and low PF participants.
High PF participants (1) were as likely to commit infractions as either low or medium PF participants, but were less likely than their non-PF counterparts to commit any institutional infractions; (2) were slightly less likely than their non-PF matches to commit serious institutional infractions, but were significantly more likely than low or medium PF participants to do so; and (3) were significantly less likely than low or medium PF participants as well as their non-PF matches to be arrested during the one-year follow-up period.
Because Bible studies meet weekly, perhaps a more adequate single-item criterion would have been attendance at half or more of the Bible studies: that is, every other week, or 25 times, not 10 times, in a given year. This higher cutoff would have left only 10 inmates in the high participation group (none of whom, incidentally, were arrested during the follow-up period), rendering the results intriguing but making the category too small for comparative analysis.
Quoted from “Religious Programs, Institutional Adjustment, and Recidivism among Former Inmates in Prison Fellowship Programs”, Byron R. Johnson, Lamar University, David B. Larson, National Institute for Healthcare Research, Duke University Medical Center, Timothy C. Pitts, Morehead State University, Justice Quarterly, Vol. 14 No. 1, March 1997
So, it didn't matter what programs were attended. The only factor that mattered was Bible study. Hebrews 4:12 says it succinctly
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Our belief in Jesus is only the beginning. It is a relationship that lasts for eternity. The best way to get to know God is reading the Bible. Starting with the book of John, you can really get to know Jesus.
We're going to take communion now. It is also called the Lord's Supper. Jesus spoke of this in the book of John chapter 6
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” John 6:53-56
Many who heard this argued how could Jesus give us his flesh to eat. The answer was that He died for our sins on the cross. The bread represents the body of Christ. The juice represents his blood. We take the bread and the cup and remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us with eternal thanksgiving. Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, thank You for dying on the cross for our sins. Thank you for rescuing us from death and eternal judgment. Thank you for giving us communion as a symbol to remember You. We praise Your name. Amen.
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