On His way to the cross, just before His agonizing time in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus announced to His followers that He had already overcome the world.
It was a statement meant to give them something happy to hang on to during the next awful hours of their - and His -life.
The words were given in the context of the persecution He had also just promised.
The discourse begins with "Let not your heart be troubled," and ends with "Be of good cheer.
" In the 3 chapters that record this message, there is described a flood of difficulty that will come against the infant church, mingled with several promises of a coming Comforter, who will be no less than Jesus Himself! Overcoming the terrors of persecution through the Holy Spirit seems to be the best way to interpret what Jesus said.
This is how Jesus endured His life to the present, and even as He anticipates what is ahead in the next 72 hours, He continues to see nothing but victory.
Trouble, yes, but triumph over all troubles, equally yes.
The notion today that believers are bullet-proof seems to ignore the real difficulties that Jesus and his followers all had.
The question seems to be, then, to what extent are we promised the avoidance of defeat, and what does defeat really look like? For Jesus, it was the ultimate in defeat followed by the ultimate in victory.
Jesus suffers among His people now, but expects the end to be quite sweet.
The apostles? We know the most about Paul's life.
Shipwreck is not the avoidance of trouble.
But shipwreck did not mean drowning.
It meant in fact the conversion of the population of Melita.
Beatings and imprisonment.
Real pain there.
Positive confession aside, that's real blood trickling down the backs of Paul and Silas.
Is this the fulfillment of Paul's vision to come to Macedonia and help? Yep.
That jailer may have even been the man in Paul's dream! The overcoming broke through as bloody Paul and Silas called down an earthquake followed by an altar call par excellence.
Pattern developing here.
Victory is promised.
But victory is not always getting what you want in prayer.
The sickness might hang on longer than you were expecting.
You have to stay at that awful job when you had these great "dreams" for your life.
She died anyway, sir, in spite of all your attempts to keep it from happening.
But the promise is still yours.
"In all these things we are more than conquerors.
Who is he that overcomes but he that believes that Jesus is the Christ? This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith!" Not our instant deliverance.
Our faith.
Not our bulletproof vest.
Our faith.
Our faith doesn't look at that whip or that approaching tsunami, or that gun pointed at the head, or that crucifixion.
Faith looks at the ultimate victory, and says, "I have overcome.
"