Sermon Tone Analysis

Those of you who grew up in the 1960s remember that the most important social crusade of that era was the Civil Rights Movement.

"We Shall Overcome" was a protest song that became the key anthem of that movement.

All over America Black-Americans joined hands as they marched and sang that song.

They challenged our culture to live up to its basic creed: “That all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”

The title and structure of the song are derived from an early gospel song, "I'll Overcome Someday", by African-American composer Charles Albert Tindley who also wrote, “We’ll Understand It By and By”.

The song was published in 1947 as "We Will Overcome".

The first stanza reads simply:

We shall overcome

We shall overcome

We shall overcome some day.

And the chorus replies:

Oh, deep in my heart

I do believe

We shall overcome some day.

This melody can also be the theme song of every Christian, but with a slight twist.

We already have overcome!

This morning we come to the last chapter of the Apostle John’s letter to his beloved congregation at Ephesus.

In it, the aged Apostle has a very clear-cut purpose—how can we authenticate our faith?

In other words: How can you know you're a Christian? 1 John 5:13 is the key verse of the whole epistle.

"These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you may know that you have eternal life."

And, as we've discovered, the Apostle John’s message cycles back through the same themes again and again and each time John cycles back through he broadens and widens our understanding of those themes.

As we arrive at chapter 5, however, there's a special word here that appears only in this opening section of this chapter.

The Apostle proclaims that believer’s are Overcomers.

/“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.

This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.

This is love for God: to obey his commands.

And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.

This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

Who is it that overcomes the world?

Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”/ (1 John 5:1–5, NIV84)

!

I. CHRISTIANS ARE OVERCOMERS

#. what does the Apostle mean when he says that we are overcomers?

#. it’s a wonderful word, but it needs some explaining

#. it’s a word that has important implications for our spiritual lives

!! A. THERE ARE MANY DESCRIPTIONS OF CHRISTIANS

#. the title Christian is the most frequent name applied to those who have chosen to follow Jesus who is the Christ of God

#. the name means little Christs and was given to the early believers by their pagan neighbors as an epitaph of derision

#. /“Oh, so you’re one of those Christ followers, are you?

You, you ‘Christ-ian’—you ‘little Christ, you.”/

#. but there are so many other great descriptors of who and what we are

#. in the Scriptures we are also called ...

#.

Children, Children of God, Children of Light, Children of the Day, and Children of Obedience

#. we are called ...

#.

Believers, and the Faithful, Friends of Jesus Christ, Brothers and Sisters, Sheep, Saints, and Holy Ones

#. we are called ...

#.

Soldiers, Witnesses, Stewards, Fellow-citizens, Salt, and Light

#. we are called ...

#. the Elect of God, the Chosen of God, Ministers of God, Servants of God, Disciples of God, Heirs of God, and Joint-heirs with Christ

#. we are called ...

#.

Branches in the Vine, Members of the Body of Christ, Living Stones, and the Temple of God, Living Letters, the Beloved, and Followers of Christ

#. each of those terms give us the definition of who we are

#.

and when you take them all together they express the fullness of what it means to belong to God through faith in Christ

#. but there's one other title that isn't generally a part of the short list of descriptors that most of us would refer to, and that is this term that is used a number of times in 1 John 5:1-5

#. we are overcomers

#. it’s a word that means we are victors—or we are winners

!! B. WE ARE THE SUPER-VICTORIOUS

#. the word that the Apostle John uses three times in vv.

1-5 is /nikaō/ (nik - ah - o), and it means /to conquer/, it means /to win/, it means /to defeat/, it means /to gain victory/

#. it comes from the Greek nikē (nik - ee) and was the name of their Goddess of Victory and Triumph

#. the Greeks actually believed that only the gods were ultimately unconquerable

#. true, ultimate, final, permanent and a lasting sort of eternal victory only belonged to the gods

#. it was denied to mere mortals

#. for men, there might be a triumph here and a triumph there, but there would be mostly defeat and failure

#.

only the gods could reach the level of victory implied by the word /nikē/

#. playing against the background of that kind of thinking in the ancient world, it was a pretty stunning for the Apostle John to assure believers that they had the kind of unconquerability that belonged only to the gods of that culture

* ILLUS.

We like that word even in English.

The United States Air Force, for twenty years, called their anti-aircraft missiles Nikē Missiles.

And then of course we have Nikē shoes that are supposed to lead you to triumph in whatever athletic endeavor you're engaged in.

#. the word is used by our Lord Jesus Himself in John 16:33, when He says, /"In this world you shall have tribulation, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."/

#.

Jesus is telling His disciples, /“I have won out in conflict with the world.

I have defeated the world.

I have conquered the world.

I am the victor over the world.”/

#. the Apostle Paul uses a form of the word in one of my favorite passages of Scripture

* /“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”/

(Romans 8:37, NIV84)

#. the Apostle refers to the unconquerable position of Christians in Christ

#. but the Apostle adds a twist—we're not just overcomers—we're not merely nikē

#. we are /huper nikē/, meaning, we're super-conquerors—we are the /ultimate conquerors/

#. through faith in Christ we unconquerable

#. the Apostle Paul goes on to describe this unconquerableness this way:

* /“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”/

(Romans 8:38–39, NIV84)

#. there is nothing that can conquer us, not tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword

#. we are super-conquerors

#. we are the unconquerable

#. we are the overcomers

* ILLUS.

In 1798, when Lord Nelson came back and reported to the British Admiralty, his great victory over the French in the Battle of the Nile, he said this, and it's a great quote, /"Victory is not a large enough word to describe what took place."/

#. this is certainly true of our salvation in Christ Jesus

#. victory is not a large enough word to describe what takes place when a sinner is justified by faith

!! C. WE ARE PERMANENTLY VICTORIOUS

#. all three uses of the word overcome in this passage are in the present tense

#. the Apostle John tell us that, by our faith in the risen Christ, we are continually overcoming the world

#.

our victory over the world, the flesh and the devil is habitual, it is permanent, it is ongoing

#. we are permanently triumphant, permanently conquerors, the victory can never be taken from us

#. we may fail along the way

#.

we may fall victim to the enticements of the world here and there

#. we may lose some skirmishes