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We shall overcome! 2 Cor 2: 14 – 17 Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 18 Nov, 2007 I’VE FOUND a great collection of gospel music on You Tube. I was watching Mahalia Jackson singing, “We shall overcome” the other day. What a great song of coming victory in Christ! THE TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION OF SAINTS We shall overcome. It’s a key part of the gospel message. I went on from Mahalia Jackson to the great American preacher and leader, Martin Luther King, preaching on overcoming in the midst of that dreadful time of struggle and persecution, reassuring the people that we shall overcome some day. As I reflected on this, I thought, “What a way to bring together the strands of social concern and the gospel of free salvation in Jesus Christ. We shall overcome one day. We shall overcome tyranny. We shall overcome those who oppress. We shall overcome poverty. We shall overcome the opposition of wicked people.” Jesus is marching in his victory, and he has overcome the world. We shall overcome some day. Our passage reminds us that we are in victory every day, because, as Paul writes, 2COR 2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ... God always leads us in that triumphal procession. It doesn’t say that he led us in a triumphal procession many years ago, when we first believed, or will in the future when Christ returns. It says that God always leads us. We shall overcome some day, because we are part of the victory march every day. One day the saints will come marching in. But never think that we will just wander together to the gates of heaven to assemble there and merely march through the city gates and up to the throne. No. The saints come marching in when the long march through dust and mud reaches its end. The saints come marching in after they cross many mountains and fight many battles. The saints come marching in when they have struggled and won under Christ their head. They come bloodied and beaten, but never bowed or defeated. We shall overcome some day because we begin overcoming right now. When the watchers on the city wall see the thin line far off, when they see the standard of the slain lamb, a shout goes up! “Swing the doors widely open! They are coming! ― at last, they are coming!” And the weary troop faces the final climb, glad because the end is now in sight, but sad because they have seen so many fall along the way. For weary mile after weary mile, they have sighed, “How long, Lord? How long?” But still they go marching. And, when ― at last ― they reach the gates, all the saints will meet them. Those they thought forever lost will storm the lines to greet them! Shouts of joy will shake the ground; no place will be unfilled. The gates open fully. The band strikes up:
And the saints complete their long march God has led us into his city in that triumphal procession in Christ. The victory march of Jesus is complete! But even in this first statement, there is a further great truth: ...thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ... Christ heads that victory march, but the marchers are you and me. We shall overcome some day. It’s not someone else. It is not just the saints from old times, it is everyday saints like you and me. We are the ones who will overcome some day. God leads us in Christ ― always! There’s an old song, Standing in the need of prayer. A few of the words are, Ain’t the preacher nor the deacon, You and I don’t need to look to someone else to do the work. It’s me, standing in the need of prayer ― because it’s I who am daily in the battle against the world, the flesh and the devil. We are the ones in the victory march; we are the ones who will overcome some day. As John writes in his letter: 1JOHN 5:2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. This is no simple matter. The flesh wars against the Spirit, as the Bible tells us. Many times we will stumble and nearly fall. But we will get up again and start over, and know that, in the end, victory will be ours. We shall overcome, we shall live in peace, we shall not be moved ― because it is God at work in us. EPH 2:10 ...we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
OVERCOMING DAILY But how do we overcome on a daily basis? Many years ago we had a good friend, a Chinese student studying in Sydney. She used to study in the mornings on Tuesdays, work a few hours at the Fish Markets, and then come home to shower and dress. Then we used to have her over for tea that night. She was fastidious about washing, but there was still something about her, an extra hint in her perfume, which spoke volumes about what she did on Tuesday afternoons. After a few hours at the fish markets, she had a delicate smell of soap, perfume and fish about her, even after a shower. Paul writes, ...God, [...] always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 15 For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. There is a certain smell about Christians ― the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ. The world tells us we must not speak. The world tells us our message must not be heard. The world says the Romans had the right idea about Christians. We reek of Christ, and that is our victory. The closer we are to him, the more of him we will have about us. When I was about to enter Theological College, a colleague from the Department of Environment and Planning phoned to see how I was going at Bankstown Council. I said it was fine, but change was coming. She said, “Are you going into the ministry?” I laughed. “I am. How did you know? I haven’t ever said anything to you about going into the ministry, have I?” “No,” she said, “But you are so much like the priests and brothers I have known, that I knew you would do it some time!” But it doesn’t apply only to people going into theological studies. If we believe in “every–member ministry”, we will know that there is something of Christ visible in all of us. A stranger once asked me, “Are you a Christian?” I said I was, and asked how he knew. He replied, “You generally recognise your brothers and sisters: there’s a family resemblance.” We are victorious because we recognise each other. We have the vital tool to bond us together with each other and with Jesus our head. We only have to use it. There is a perfume about us that we should all recognise. It is an aroma which spreads among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. We know each other; the world detects us, and dislikes what it senses. In World War II, both the English and the Germans had airborne radar, so that aircraft could detect others nearby. The English radar had a secret aspect, an additional signal transmitted from the aircraft, called an IFF signal ― If Friend or Foe signal. It helped English aircraft to identify each other as well as merely detect each other. If you were separated from your squadron, you wouldn’t try to join up with a Geschwader of German Messerschmidts by mistake: you would find your own squadron and join it. We have our own IFF, and we shall overcome because of it. We are an army, but we are a community. We are people who belong together in Christ, and community means strength. We shall overcome some day! We are in that victory march of Christ, led by God, and spreading everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Jesus. And though the storms should rage, though the devil should rave, Jesus will hold us fast and we shall overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. We shall overcome some day. So you and I may not consciously be fighting, but still we are in the battle. Even when we are not speaking words of ministry, we still breathing out Christ’s scent to all who come close. We did a role play in a course I attended, about how to visit someone in hospital. Some of the people tried all kinds of Bible quotations and pious platitudes with the sick person. And afterwards the person playing the sick person said, “I would really hate a visit like that. I want you to hear my fears and understand what I face. If I want to hear the Bible, I will ask.” Someone in the group said, “The Bible speaks of Christ in you, the hope of glory. When you visit someone ― wherever you go, in fact ― you take Christ with you, because he is in you. Let him do the ministry, and you just go to show love. He will let you know if he wants you to speak.” Does that sound a little simplistic? But there is a truth. We take Christ with us wherever we go. Let him do what he wants to do, because he is the one who has overcome the world already, and he will lead us in his path.
THOSE WHO REJECT But never dream that overcoming will occur without struggle. Those who hate the scent of Christ will hate the scent of his followers. As our passage says, ...we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? No one likes to be reminded of death. When we represent Christ among those who are perishing, we remind them of death and judgment; when we represent him among those who are being saved, even if they have not yet responded, we are a fragrance of life, eternal life, life abundant and free! When something dies, you always want to get rid of the smell. That is why the world rejects Christians, why people rage against the gospel. The devil knows his time is short; his anger knows no bounds. Until the end, he fights in vain, hoping to regain what he lost so long ago in that battle on a hill outside Jerusalem. Why do Governments drop fairness from their policies? It’s the devil’s work1 Why are people gaoled for what wasn’t a crime when they were arrested, and held contrary to 900 years of British legal tradition? It’s satan’s doing! Why do anti–terrorism laws make it a crime even to speak out against police abuse? An enemy has done it! Whither went the right to legal representation? An evil hand lies behind it! Why does our nation not keep its promises about aid to the poor nations? Wickedness embodied controls our deeds! Why, why why? As Christians, we bring the fragrance of Christ to bear on such things, too. And the perishing will hate what they smell, but those being saved will love it. As Christians, we still bring Christ to bear on the lives of men and women in their lives of mute despair, and the perishing will hate what they smell, but those being saved will love it. The devil fights because judgment day is coming. He has a lot of evil to put into place before the final battle.. But, be of good cheer! We can stand firm and resist evil: Jesus has overcome the world!
CONCLUSION So, never despair: we shall overcome some day. Never give up: we shall overcome some day. Never sit at the stop waiting for a bus to heaven: we shall overcome some day, if we stay in the battle. There will be mountains that I will have to climb I just can’t give up now Never said there wouldn’t be trials I’ve come too far from where I started from Nobody told me the road would be easy and I don’t believe he brought me this far to leave me.* The battle is ours to win! Let‘s tackle the enemy in the institutions of our world, in the habitations of demons, and in the hearts of men and women. We shall overcome some day! Praise God! AMEN!
* Words & Music Erica and Tina Atkins (Mary Mary)
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© Peter R. Green 2007. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.) |
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