The Overcoming Faith: 1st John Lesson 26

Overcoming Faith

1 John 5:4-5

 I am excited about the message from 1 John this morning because I think it will provide a lot of encouragement to many of you. Far too many Christians fail to walk in victory. Far too often we who are Christians fail to walk in victory. Often, we find ourselves defeated by sins that easily beset us. It may be the sin of anger, or gluttony, or lust, or pride, or selfishness, and the list could go on and on. We find ourselves overwhelmed and crippled with fear, anxiety, worry, or doubts. We get derailed by trials or difficulties in life. We struggle to walk faithfully in a culture that is wicked and perverted. Sometimes our zeal for the Lord cools and our commitment to prayer and God’s Word descends into a ritual, or stops completely. It can be discouraging to share with people who don’t seem to care about the truth. We are constantly bombarded with reminders that we are hated by the world and strangers and aliens in this world.

 There is a lot in life that is against us. If someone tells you that the Christian life is easy, they are lying to you. Craig occasionally reminds us that the Christian life is simple. Love the Lord your God. Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. It is simple, but it will never be easy in this life. Those of us who struggle with discouragement, doubt, disappointment, and frequent defeats, we need the truth John presents to us in verses 4-5 of 1 John chapter 5. Read these verses with me. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

 Some of us need to let those words sink in. We need to understand these important words so that they can sink into our hearts and minds and transform our thinking. We do struggle with different challenges in this life. We are in a battle. We are in an intense struggle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. We have an uphill fight to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. While these are the facts concerning the struggle, we need to, at least once in a while, be reminded of the outcome. We win. We are overcomers. We are victorious. These verses are an important reminder of our victory in Jesus. We sang about that victory. We are victors in Jesus Christ. We are victors through Jesus Christ. We are partakers in the victory He has already won.

 Last week we saw, in verses 1-3, the vital signs of spiritual life. Those who are born of God will show evidence of this spiritual birth because they will have received the life transforming faith which results from the new birth. They will believe that Jesus is the Christ. This belief is more than just an intellectual affirmation of historical facts. It is a belief that is evidence of the faith that God gives as a result of the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit. There will also be the vital sign of love for God and love for those born of God. There will also be the vital sign of obedience to the commandments of God.

 As we saw last week, if there is spiritual life, there will be the evidence of these vital signs of spiritual life. Present in every person born of God will be faith, love, and obedience. If there is no evidence of the vital signs, there is no spiritual life. If these vital signs are present, spiritual life is present. The vital signs are proof that we are born of God. Following the presentation of the vital signs in verses 1-3 John now describes the victory of spiritual birth in verses 4-5. Those who possess the vital signs also possess the victory. We are overcomers.

 The first thing I want to point out is John’s emphasis of this truth. An effective tool of communication is to repeat something we want to emphasize. Let me repeat that. An effective tool of communication is to repeat something we want to emphasize. You don’t necessarily have to say the same thing twice, you can emphasize something by restating it in a couple different ways. This is what John does in these verses. John says, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world…” Look back at verse 1 again. “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever is born of God overcomes…and then in verse 5 John asks, “Who is the one who overcomes the world?...he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

 The Greek word translated “born” is “gennao.” It is to be begotten or born. It is to be born of God. This is what we learned last week and John continues this emphasis. To be born of God is to have received from God spiritual life. It is to have passed from death into life. This is what John described in the first chapter of his gospel. The Gospel of John 1:12-13 says, “But as many as received Him (Jesus), to them He gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

 In John 3, in the conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus explained that “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (v. 3) Nicodemus did not understand. Jesus explained in verse 5, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” To be born of the Spirit is to receive the gift of spiritual birth by the Spirit of God. This is what it means to be born of God. 

 The verb in this verse 4 of 1 John 5 is a perfect tense verb. This describes completed action with finished results in the present time. We are born of God at the moment we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and the results of this birth continue into the present. The results of this birth will continue throughout our lives and into eternity. This is also a passive voice verb. This means that the subject of the sentence receives the action of the verb. We don’t do anything to cause this birth. It is the work of God.

 Those who are born of God overcome the world. “Whatever is born of God overcomes the world.” (v. 4) “Overcomes” is a present tense verb. This tense indicated continuous action happening in the present time. This indicates a continuous, ongoing reality. We are consistently, continually overcoming the world.

 The verb is “nikao” in the Greek. The noun is nike. The noun means victory. The verb means “to be victorious, to prevail.” Whatever is born of God is victorious over the world. Whatever is born of God prevails over the world. The world is not the physical planet on which we live. We have seen this several times in 1 John. The world is the system of evil ruled by Satan that dominates the culture of carnal ambitions, greed, selfishness, humanistic, prideful, pleasure seeking humanity. It is the domain of darkness, from which we who are born of God, have been delivered. We are victorious over an evil world system that hates us, wants to discredit our message, wants to deny our Lord, and wants to destroy the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, we are victorious.

 What is the basis of our victory? It is our faith. We are victorious because we have received the gift of faith at the time of our spiritual regeneration. We have been given the eyes to see and the ears to hear and to comprehend the great spiritual truth that Jesus is the Christ. He is the Son of God. He is the God Man who redeemed us from sin and saved us from the wrath of God to come and He has seated us with Himself at the right hand of the Father. We have received the gift of faith and as a result we are joined with Christ in the victory He has accomplished.

 This is not the first time John has brought up the issue of overcoming. In chapter 2:14 he said of the young men, “the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” The young men were those who had shown some measure of spiritual growth. Their lives were producing the evidence of faith because they believed and were abiding in the word of God and the word was abiding in them. The word of God was directing and dictating their thinking, their words, and their attitudes. As a result they were overcoming the evil one and the world system he controls. We do not overcome apart from abiding in the truth of God’s Word.

 In 1 John 4:4 we learned that we have overcome the false teachers who do not confess that Jesus is from God because, “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” The very Spirit of God indwells us and guides us into all the truth so that we overcome the false teachers who want to deceive us concerning Jesus Christ. We are victorious over them because the overcoming presence of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is greater than the spirit of the evil on in the world. We do not overcome unless we are indwelt by the Spirit of God.

 John is not the only one to tell us of our victory in Jesus Christ. Turn to Romans 8 for a moment. In this great chapter we find Paul’s wonderful proclamation of victory. Let’s read verses 28-39.

 It seems to me that both the Apostles John and Paul took the words of Jesus to heart. In John 16:33 Jesus has just predicted the darkest hour for His disciples. These words are spoken on the night of His arrest. These followers of Christ were about to deny Jesus and scatter in fear. Their spiritual lives were about to be characterized by fear and failure. Their hopes were about to be completely shattered. Their world was about to crash around them. And in this context Jesus spoke these words, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world.”

 Jesus was victorious over every enemy we face. He defeated Satan. He defeated sin. He defeated death. Jesus was victorious. In Him we have victory. In Him we have peace because we stand in Him and we stand in His victory. 

In the future there will be a time of great distress on the earth. This is a time the Bible calls the Great Tribulation. There will be a great harvest of souls for the kingdom of God during this time. Listen to the words of John from Revelation 12:10-11. “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of the brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.”

Revelation 12 describes those who overcome in the face of the greatest tribulation the world has known since the Flood. This promise of our victory is most important in the face of life’s greatest struggles. This promise of victory in Christ is most useful when things look the darkest. My friends, it doesn’t matter how dark or difficult things get for us in this life, we are victorious if we are born of God.

 I want to take you to one more place where this idea of overcoming is prominent. It is in the book of The Revelation. In Chapters 2-3 we find the messages of our Lord to the seven churches in Asia. We are going to look at these messages in detail in our study through Revelation in Sunday School beginning in a couple weeks, but today I want to focus on just one aspect of these messages. I want to look at what is promised to the those who overcome. There is a promise to those who overcome in each of the messages to the seven churches.

 Jesus promised those at Ephesus in Rev. 2:7, “To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.” As overcomers we are going to eat from that tree. I am anxious to find out what that tastes like.

 Look at the words of Christ to those who overcome in Smyrna in 2:11. “He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.” The first death is a physical death. The second death is described in Rev. 20:11-15. Thank you Jesus that as an overcomer I don’t have to worry about being hurt by the second death. The first death is really inconsequential for the overcomer. We can rejoice in the reality that we are victorious overcomers.

 To those who overcome in the church at Pergamum Jesus said in verse 17, “To Him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.”

 The hidden manna is a special spiritual nourishing food, meaning Christ will sustain us. The white stone was given to athletes as part of their prize. This is a symbol of our admission into the eternal victory celebration of glory. The new name written on that stone, well, we are just going to have to wait and find out what that name is. It is given to all who overcome. True children of God overcome.

 To Thyatira was the promise of verse 26-28. “He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to Him I will give authority over the nations…Read these verses.

 The overcomers in Sardis are promised in 3:5, “He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase His name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”

 The overcomers in Philadelphia were promised in 3:12, “He who overcomes I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.”

 To the overcomes in Laodicea He promised in 3:21, “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”

 If you read these letters to these churches you will discover that those who overcome are those who are victorious over all kinds of problems. These problems aren’t really any different than the problems or challenges or threats we face in the world today. The church at Ephesus had left their first love. Their love for Christ had grown cold. Their passion and zeal had cooled until they were just involved in cold, ritualistic orthodoxy. It is hard to imagine that the church that received the letter written to the Apostle Paul that describes so much about the glories of our salvation, allowing themselves to let their love for Christ grow cold. Actually, it isn’t hard to imagine. I’ve read that letter hundreds of times and I am still capable of allowing my love to grow cold. The overcomer does not stay there.

 Smyrna suffered intense persecution. Polycarp was the pastor of the church at Smyrna. He was burned alive at the age of 86 for his refusal to worship Caesar. His story is one of a true overcomer. 

 Thyatira fell into false teachings, idolatry, and immorality. There were people in that church that advocated for the free exercise of liberty. They defended their rights to live immoral lives. Sardis was infiltrated by spiritually dead, unconverted people. Laodicea was lukewarm, neither cold nor hot.

 To many of these churches was given the appeal and the opportunity to repent. This is important to understand. Some in these churches did not repent. Some were not overcomers. Those who did not overcome proved that they were never truly born of God. Still, they were given the command by Christ to repent. The offer was there.

 What is the relevance of these messages to these churches to us today? When John describes for us the truth about overcoming faith, some of us, perhaps many of us, are struggling because we aren’t necessarily living as an overcomer. Perhaps you have wandered from your first love for Christ. Perhaps you are living in fear of persecution, worried that you may not endure faithfully. You are struggling to trust God in times of tough trials. Maybe you are struggling with moral issues. Maybe you are not truly born again.

 Listen, the message is still the same. Repent. If you are born of God you will repent. If you are born of God you will overcome. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world – our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

 Let’s pray.