Northside Church - Sydney
He Week 2: He has overcome
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Well, friends, it's a new series, and this is week two of our new series, simply entitled He. The He, of course, referred to the Jesus Christ, the pivotal person of history. He's the defining point in history, in chronological history, BC, AD. More has been written, more has been composed, more has been sculpted, recorded, painted about this man than any other person in history. And so in this series, we are looking to highlight some of the features, some of the defining characteristics of Jesus Christ. The first being, last week, he is alive, Easter, and today he has overcome. Overcome what? And what does that mean for us as we seek to overcome some of the things that happen in our lives? If I were to say to you, wow, that person has really overcome a lot of stuff. Who are you thinking of? Who are the overcomers known to you? I've had a chance to think, if I had gained permission, I'd be referring to some of you guys here in this church, because so many of you I would regard as overcomers. But let me take you back to my last church, a guy called Darryl. And Darryl suffers today from cerebral palsy. And he used to bring his little wheelchair, a little one of those motorised wheelchairs down at the front, most Sunday nights. And over a period of time, I came to understand Darryl's very distorted way of speaking, as is the case sadly with cerebral palsy sufferers. It takes time. You've got to really concentrate to really understand what's being said. And after a while, I came to appreciate his incredible sense of humour. And he didn't have a lot of friends because people didn't quite, they wanted to reach out, but it was very difficult because of the language and the constant movement and so on. And then I remember the night that we were able to put up on the big screen. I think it over had projected days, I think, goes back a fair way. We're able to put up the cover of the monthly Catholic journal for South Australia because Darryl's picture was on the cover, because he had been a contributor to the development of some new software for the Catholic church in South Australia. That was one of his specialty areas, software development. And you could just censor the sort of ripple of awe and wonder that went through the congregation as we gave him a thunderous round of applause. And Darryl's standing in the congregation and the increasing confidence levels for some people to try to approach him and try to work things out with him just went up immeasurably. Who are the overcomers now and to you? Guys, I hope some of you regard yourselves as overcomers because we certainly do. Some of you have overcome health crises. You've overcome severe loss. You've overcome massive disappointments. In some cases, you've overcome physical disabilities. You inspire us. You really do. That's the way it is with people who we regard as overcomers. They inspire us and they lift us. Well, they've overcome all of that. Well, in the case of Jesus Christ, he lifts the bar when it comes to overcomers. He lifts the bar to brand new heights because his crowning glory is that he overcame the greatest of our fears, the greatest of our enemies. He overcame death. That's what last weekend was all about. Easter. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. I saw a reality TV show. I baptised this recently. And it was entitled, "I Should Be Dead." Great title for a TV show. Well, guess what? In the case of Jesus Christ, he was dead. Okay? For three days and for three nights. But now he's alive. He has been raised. But here's the shocking truth directly from the Bible. It's Paul writing in Ephesians and just read the passage to us. He's describing the divine power that is at our disposal as Christians to live our lives to maximum effectiveness. And he says this, "The power working in us is the same as the mighty strength which God used when he raised Christ from death." It says, "I don't know about you, but I find that a mind-blowing thought." But that's just, you can pass over those words very casually. But I mean, that's an incredible thought to ponder. I mean, either Paul is severely deluded at this point or we're dealing with a concept. We're dealing with a truth that has the potential to radically alter how we think, how we respond to challenges, how we react to loss and defeat pretty much everything about us, if that is true. Having resurrection power at our disposal means we're going to alter in the power of the Spirit so many of the ways in which we would normally live. And of course, that's exactly what the conversion experience is all about. When someone becomes a Christian, an active follower of Jesus Christ, at that point, there begins a process of transformation. Sometimes it's rapid and quite startling, and I've seen that over the years. More often than not, it's gradual, it's incremental. But whether rapid or gradual, the Bible makes it clear, we all have access to this source of power, this resurrection power. What's so special, what's so unique about resurrection power? Well, as the term suggests, it has the potential to revise and resurrect things. Something that was dead can be brought back to life again. In the case of Jesus, that thing was His lifeless body in the tomb. In our case, it could be a number of things that can mean hope that has died. It can mean faith that has lost its potency. It can mean courage that lies dormant. It can mean self-esteem that has suffered a mortal wound. It can mean a number of things. These and so many other aspects of our essential spiritual DNA can have new life breathed into them by resurrection power. If you're following the one who's overcome, and what does Jesus overcome? Everything. Pretty much everything. Because of His victory, we are on the winning side. Now, friends, the Christians have always talked like that. They were on the winning side. What they generally mean is we're on the winning side in that one day, this life is going to be wrapped up and we're going to go to heaven, and it's all going to be worth it, and in that sense we're on the winning side. Now, all that's true. That is very true. Paul says in Romans 8, he says, "I consider what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us." Revelation 21 talks about the new heaven and the new earth. They're more suffering. They're more pain. They're more grief. They're more crying, all those things. Now, that's future. That's our great ultimate destination. But what about now? What does it mean to be an overcoming now? Right here on a daily basis. This morning, I want you to go away with at least several practical points that will relate directly to how we live on a daily basis. The decisions we make, the responses we make, the certain circumstances we find ourselves in, you see, being on Christ's winning side means, well, it means a number of things. I'm going to give you four for today. And these arise out of the victory that God, the Lord has achieved through his resurrection. In that sense, they are part of resurrection power. Paul says we have it right at our disposal. Here's the first one. Failure is no longer fatal. Now, for the Christian, that's more than just a slogan in a motivational book somewhere. That is a theological reality, a powerful doctrinal truth. Paul says it emphatically in 1 Corinthians 15, 17, if Christ has not been raised, our faith is a delusion and we are still lost in our sins. And so, for Jesus' death and resurrection, they're crucial elements in the forgiveness of our failures and the forgiveness of our sinful condition. And that has to be good news when you consider the number of times that we all fail. We allow guilt, we allow regret, remorse to weigh us down and prevent us from becoming who we are meant to be in Christ. That puts us very much on the losing side, not on the winning side. When you think about it, there was a lot of failure associated with that first Easter when you think about it. A lot of failure. I mean, Peter denied Jesus. The disciples fled. Thomas doubted the guys on the road to Emmaus that they'd given up. There's a lot of failure. But none of these failures was fatal. None of them thwarted the eventual outcome of Jesus' mission because in each case, in each of those cases, there was confession, there was repentance, there was renewal in each case. Friends, thank God today for the fresh starts that you and I get all the time. What's needed for a fresh start, confession, seeking forgiveness, seeking that fresh start to bring us back from any failure that we might have experienced. If you're bearing a grudge, if you're harboring resentment, whatever it is, failure is not fatal or final. Something else about being on Christ's winning side, worry is no longer weirism. We don't use too often these days, weirism. What does it mean? Well, it means tiresome, tedious, energy draining. When something is weirism, it robs us of verve and vitality and worry and stress and anxiety will do that to you. Could be happening to you right now. Most Sundays we have people who are worrying and stressed out about something or other. It could be a situation in which you're involved, could be a decision you have to make, could be a person in your life, a relational issue. It's causing you some stress. Usually in those circumstances we feel quite powerless and in a sense we are except in one area and that's in the area of choice. Can't choose our circumstances but we can choose how we react to our circumstances. Friends, I've put this to the test so many times and I know so many of you have over the years. I'm not alone in this. So many of you live this out as I try to in the power of the Spirit. If I can do nothing about the situation, I refuse to worry about it. If it's beyond my control, I refuse to worry about it. If I believe Jesus is still with me and that opens up a whole lot of possibilities, I refuse to worry about it. If I'm convinced there'll be a time when there will be a solution, I refuse to worry about it excessively. Now I'm not saying, I'm not saying for one moment that I don't get concerned, little despondent even, even quite upset. I had a situation this week. As some of you know, I've just returned from Hong Kong and Shanghai and I did something this week which as a reasonably experienced traveller, I don't normally do. I arrived in a country without any cash at all. Now my plan was okay. I arrived in Shanghai with armed with just this little baby right here, little NAB gold card and it worked okay. You just get an ATM and it gives you the cash you know in the currency. My transport from the airport into the city had already been pre-booked, pre-paid, pre-arranged. So my plan was to go to the first ATM I could find in the city and take out some money. Well the first one I went to was in a, what I thought was an imposing sort of bank in maddening, crazy Shanghai and in the midst of all the Chinese hieroglyphics, there was one little part that said English and card not accepted. So I thought, okay, you know, that's fine. I thought, you know what, I better just be a little bit careful here. I think I'll go to the counter and ask if this bank, the second bank I went to, if it took the card and a very helpful Chinese lady said, you know what, I'll come out with you. In Shanghai, in this one bank, five booths with ATMs, you have to close the door behind you, lined up at each of those booths, no less than six people. You go to your ATM, you think you're stressed and you've got to wait for one or two people. In Shanghai, everything is just multiplied many times over and so there's this massive number of people waiting and so she, we went into this little booth together, very, very cramped. She put the card in, the thing swallowed it, gone and she was, she was shocked and I was mortified and she said, oh, do not move from here. And I said, don't worry baby, I'm not going, I didn't say baby, I didn't know, I didn't know baby in Chinese. I probably wouldn't have said baby anyway. But so, you know, of course then I had the problem where she disappears and all these people are wondering why they can't get into my booth. So in very fluent Chinese, I'm going, oh, this one, not working. Whoa, here we go. What's that? Over expressive. Bevel said, he went too far, too, too, too worked up. You know, so like it was just like it could have been potentially, and so you can see them, if you look through an ATM, you can see they're little cracks, you know, and they're working on it, you know, and taking them finally 20 minutes later, she reappears with a little card. And so I just converted some Hong Kong dollars after that. I wasn't going to take any more risk with this card. But guys, look, okay, stressful moment. And it wasn't, you've got a big scene like that, it was, but look, you know, just never, I mean, praise God for the fact that we can become a little stressed, but that dogged, debilitating, dangerous levels of stress need not be a problem for any one of us. Because if we believe that nothing can separate us, if we believe that he will never leave us or forsake us, friends, I hope you can believe that today. I'm not talking about a mary poppins kind of spoonful of sugar, makes the medicine go down, sort of, you know, sprinkling stardust kind of stuff. I'm not talking about those sort of trite superficial responses to problems. I'm talking about in the power of the spirit, our ability to choose our reaction, even when we can't choose our situation. It's all part of resurrection power as is the fact trials are no longer terminal. When we're on Jesus' winning side, trials are no longer terminal. Naturally, when I talk about trials, I'm talking about problems, I'm talking about crises, I'm talking about setbacks, huge disappointments, I'm talking about loss, I'm talking about pain and sadness and grief. You know, I never cease to be amazed how easily some Christians allow themselves to be overwhelmed by the problems that beset us. Whereas the first step in overcoming a problem is to recognize that problems do happen. They are inevitable, even for the people of God. They're not a sign of God's disfavor, they're not a sign of his abandonment, they're not necessarily even a test, all that they can be. They are part of life and they're in line with what our Lord said in John 1633. What did he say, "In the world you will have a dream run." No. "In the world you will have problems." Now, if he'd stopped there, then naturally, you know, we'd all be feeling, "Whoa, we'd all be up the creek." But that's not the case because he continued. He says, "Be not afraid. I have overcome the world." Friends, for people with resurrection, power, trials and difficulties are periods of spiritual growth. They're periods of more intense prayer. They are periods of greater reliance upon God. They are periods when our faith is strengthened and they can be periods, like it was for Jesus in the tomb for three days, when all looks black and all looks hopeless. But then they're periods when all the time Easter Sunday is coming. And Easter Sunday, for you and me, can happen any day in the midst of a problem, either in the form of a solution or in the form, as it did for Paul, for grace that proves to be sufficient to overcome. But of course, there's one more feature about being on our Lord's winning side and it's the most important of all. And it's this, death is no longer daunting. It's the subject most people are least likely to want to talk about, particularly their own death. But resurrection power enables a Christ follower to exclaim in heart of your agreement with Paul in Philippians 1-21, "For me to live as Christ to die is gain." Can you say that this morning? Can you say that this morning? I hope you can, because therein lies the confidence to handle anything life can dish out, to overcome any problem you may experience. The old saying is true. It's really only when you're ready to die that you're ready to live, only when we are prepared to take on the reality of our own mortality that we're prepared to wear the mantle of immortality. That's the way it is. Jesus has overcome the power of death. What do Jesus say in the world? You will have problems. Be not afraid. I have overcome the world. We're on the winning side because of Jesus and the power of His resurrection. Look at this magnificent verse, and I close with this, this magnificent verse tucked away in first John chapter 5 verses 4 and 5. Look at this. Every child of God is able to defeat the world, and we win the victory over the world by means of our faith. Who can defeat the world only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Friends, what I like about our emphasis here at Northside is that we are trying to be realistic. We're trying to say that life is not easy. There are situations that potentially can just bowl us right over happens every week here in this church. And just being a Christian is not a way of exempting us from the harsh realities of life. But I tell you what, this is a community where people can find the strength to overcome and to rise above all kinds of difficulties that would otherwise just drag us down in painful and permanent ways. Are you on the winning side this morning? You can be. This is simply a matter of becoming a follower of Jesus. It's as simple as that. I'm so glad that Jesus Christ is an overcomer because in His strength we too can overcome. It's very unprecedented, shall we? Father God, we thank you. That He, Jesus, as the central point of history is one who has overcome. He's overcome many things. Particularly, He's overcome death. The reality that can cause so much pain and so much anxiety among a lot of people. And so, Father, may we, in His strength, that His resurrection power, may we increasingly learn what it is to be an overcomer as we draw deeply on the resurrection power that is available to us. So, Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen.