Be The Church: Be an Overcomer Church
January 22, 2020
Who here likes to win? Everyone right? Whether we are playing pickle ball or tennis, Mahjong or Pinochle, Softball or golf, we enjoy playing, but the goal is to win. So, we like to win. We like our teams to win. We get bummed out when they lose. One of my favorite shots during a football game is when the outcome is settled and the camera focuses in on a loosing fan. We all know what that feels like. But we also know the exhilaration when that last second buzzer beater shot goes through the net. We love the thrill of winning. But it’s not just winning at sports that move us. We also want to win at marriage. So, we try to win the girl. We want to win at work, we want to win at retirement. That’s why you’re here at Robson Ranch. And of course, we all want to win at life.
But did you know that God also wants us to win. In fact, we exist as His people, the church, because Jesus won the moment he rose from the grave. On that third day he defeated sin and death. Now anyone who believes in Him wins! We win forgiveness, a forever family, freedom from sin, and the hope of heaven. We no longer have to fear death. We are more than conquerors through Him who loves us. So, we don’t have to fear anything or anyone because God is with us and God is for us. We’ve won the victory through Jesus Christ our risen Lord.
However, even though we’ve won with Jesus, we still live in a battle against evil that wants to take us down. As I said last week, our world is becoming increasingly hostile towards Christianity. In Georgia, two police officers were forced to resign because of their involvement in a prison ministry. Two years ago, a small city in Missouri was pressured to remove a cross from a city park. In New Jersey a substitute teacher was fired for giving a student a bible that he asked for. At a school in Broward County, Florida, a teacher confiscated a bible from a student who was reading it during the class’s free reading time. Two years ago, the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship that my daughter was leading, voted to remove Intervarsity because of their stance on marriage. The Christian Bakers who declined to bake a wedding cake for a same sex couple, where not just taken to court, but received death threats. And these are just a few of the ongoing attacks that are happening daily across our country today. Evil is waging war against the Bible, against marriage, against prayer, against all that we hold sacred and so much more. And although we’ve won the war, we live in a world where we are under attack from evil.
So the question for us today is: How are God’s people to respond to evil? How are we to overcome when we become the object of evil’s attacks? Well that’s what we are going to look at today from God’s Word. So, if you brought your Bible, I want to encourage you to open it to Romans 12:17-21, where Paul gives us three ways we are to be an overcomer church. Three ways God would have us win against evil today. And the first way God would have us overcome evil is this:
Overcomers Refuse to Retaliate Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Romans 12:17-18
In other words, revenge is not an option for believers. Rather than retaliate, Jesus shows us another way. This is what Jesus teaches about retaliation: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.” Matthew 5:38-42
Jesus modeled this for us in his suffering: When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 1 Peter 2:23 So we are not to retaliate, get even or take revenge. These are not the way God’s people defeat evil. But if these are not the way, what is?
Paul tells us in Romans 12:17. He says we are to give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. He is talking about having a pre-disposition, a mindset toward those who oppose us. And that mindset is to be focused on doing what is honorable or what is good to those who oppose us. Peter says this mindset is to focus on our behavior to those who oppose us: Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:12
In other words, we are to always take the high road in dealing with wicked and evil people, and really with all people. Like Paul says, we are to live at peace with all people. We are to treat them like we would treat our closest Christian friends.
Often non-beleivers will treat us poorly to see how we will respond. They will bait us by their poor behavior to us to see if we will sink to their level and retaliate. If we then do retaliate; then they can discredit our faith or affirm their belief that Christianity is false. But if we treat them well and give them respect we show them an alternative way to live – we show them the way of love. And if we do that, the possibility exists to break down their barriers of hatred or unbelief toward Christianity.
I remember the first time I saw this work. I was at Capitola Beach, California, on a mission trip helping students learn to share their faith. I walked up to two young men and asked if they had time to answer a few questions about life and religion. They were immediately antagonistic, “No thanks. We’ve already been hit up.” They were angry, so I asked them why they were angry. They vented with me for about five minutes. When they had finished, I acknowledged their anger as justified and apologized for those Christians, and they immediately softened and we went on to have a great spiritual conversation. As we wrapped up our time, they thanked me and told me they had never met a Christian who had been kind to them. They didn’t come to faith that day, but since I had given them respect, God used that conversation to soften their hearts to the gospel. And sometimes that’s all God would have us do. To not repay evil for evil, but to honor people and let Him do the rest. You see, that’s one way God would have us win over evil. By refusing to retaliate and instead treat people with respect. That’s one way we can overcome evil; here’s now is another:
Overcomers Win With Mercy Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Romans 12:19-20
There are two actions we are called to make here, and both involve treating evil people with mercy. First, we are never to take justice into our own hands. We are to give place to the wrath of God in the lives of others. Taking matters into our own hands is tantamount to usurping the role of God.
This is hard for us. When we’ve been wronged or wounded by another our natural response is to make them pay. When Becky was working as the HOA Clerk, she would sometimes be on the receiving end of someone’s foul rant over some HOA rule. I’ve often felt that if I ever walked up when someone was giving it to her, he’d soon get what was coming to him from me. But that’s not God’s way of dealing with evil. Instead, What God is asking us to do here is to extend mercy – to withhold giving the person what they deserve. If we can do that, we will allow God to work. And God will work. And we have to trust Him to work. So what God is asking us to do with the evil person is to give him or her to God to deal with. After all, we don’t know what God has in mind for that person. He might pour out His wrath through a difficult circumstance to bring him to repentance. Or He might reveal the evil that is in them and bring about a change of heart. After all, an evil person has often been the object of evil on their own life. They may have been abused, abandoned, rejected or broken by someone else’s sin. So when we entrust them to God, we don’t just allow God to work in their life, but we free ourselves from responding in anger that just perpetuates evil. So that’s the first action of mercy: we are to trust God to work in the evil person’s life. We are to give place for God’s wrath.
The second action is this: we are to give mercy to our enemies. Paul writes, To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” I love how 20th Century British Theologian C.E.B. Cranfield explains this. He says: It is not enough merely to refrain from seeking to inflict injury in return for injury, we are also to do positive good to those who have injured us. For to fail to do to our enemies the good they stand in need of, when it is in our power to do it, is ‘a kind of indirect retaliation… And so then by using the words food and drink, these represent giving mercy of any kind. In other words, we are to help our enemy in any matter in which he stands in need of our resources, advice or efforts.
And if we do this, Paul says “we heap coals of fire on his head.” Now, this is an interesting result. Some say that this means we shame them by our good works, so that might repent of their evil. But that’s inconsistent with the kind of love God is calling us to give them. For this image of heaping coals of fire on one’s head is actually a good image. In this culture, burning coals were essential to keep the home fires burning, so if your fire went out, you were in great need. If someone were to give you burning coals, this was a true blessing. So then, the coals of fire we may heap on the evil person’s head is meant to help them, not to hurt, to win them, not to alienate or shame them. Therefore when we give mercy rather than retaliate we are seeking their highest good – and when we do that, we love them with the love of Jesus. This is how Christ wins over evil, and how God calls us to win. Overcomers win with mercy. And finally,
Overcomers Win With Kindness Here now, Paul summarizes this entire final passage by writing: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:18-21 Now we come to the summary statement that is to guide all our dealings with evil people. First, a little about this word overcome. It means conquer or victory. It’s quite possible that all of you have this word somewhere in your wardrobe. For this word for victory comes from the Greek term nikao… NIKE. So Paul concludes this passage by giving us two more ways for us to be victorious over evil.
First, we are not be overcome by evil. To be overcome by evil is simply another way of saying: Don’t let evil get the best of you when you are wronged. For if we allow evil to overcome us and cause us to retaliate, we don’t just succumb to the enemy himself, but to something worse – the evil that drives him. It’s never good to retaliate because if we repay evil for evil, we double it, adding a second evil to the first, and so increase the tally of evil in the world. And adding evil to the world is just not the way of Christ. So God gives us another way.
And that way is for us to overcome evil with good. This is the goal of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what God has saved us for: for a new kind of life where generosity, kindness, and blessing flow from our lives to not just one another, but to those who are evil, broken, lost and unloved. This is a reminder to us that we have a new identity in Christ to be dispensers of grace to a world devoid of grace. For this is how Jesus identified us when he said: “You are the light of the world… let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16
This is the purpose of the church in the world. We are not to cower from evil, hide from evil, or retaliate against evil but defeat evil with goodness. And in so doing we get to show the world a new kind of humanity:
A humanity where we lead the way to bring peace to broken relationships
A humanity where we lead the way to end racism, sexism, ageism and crime
A humanity where we show how forgiveness brings healing and freedom
A humanity where we show love, compassion and mercy to all
A humanity where we cloth the naked, feed the hungry and help the poor
A humanity where we care for the sick and encourage the weak a
A humanity where we seek justice for all and deliverance to those in bondage
A humanity where we see the power of God overcome the power of evil
A new humanity where God’s people overcome evil with good. God has called us to be an overcomer Church – His people who wage war against the evil of this world with the mercy and grace of Jesus. This is how we are to respond to the evil of our world today: with all the goodness God has given us in Jesus.
As God’s people we have an opportunity to change the culture of our community, our city, and even our country by overcoming evil with good. For we have an endless supply of goodness at our disposal. For we have Jesus. And He is good to all and has mercy on all He has made. And He has called us to live like Him, to be like Him and overcome evil with good. This is how God’s people win over evil. With Jesus!
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