WE OVERCOME AS HE OVERCAME

June 10, 2001 pm
MF Blume

1John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, [even] our faith.

Revelation 3:20-21 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Notice this very important point.

We must overcome in the same manner that Jesus overcame.
And we will then sit down with the Son in His throne as He overcame and sat down with His Father in His Father’s throne.

Revelation 22 notes that the throne of God is also called the throne of the Lamb.

Revelation 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

The lamb overcame!

Several weeks ago I preached a message entitled OPEN YOUR DOOR AND HE’LL OPEN HIS DOOR.

I showed you Jesus asked the church to open their door and he would then sup with them and allow them to sit with Him on His throne as He overcame as sat on the Father’s throne.
And we showed Rev 4 and the door of Heaven opened where the throne of God sat.
In other words, God opened His door of Heaven where his throne sat after speaking about the church’s need to open their door to Jesus.

Chapter 4 of Revelation was the continued thought of these final words of chapter 3.

But the overall issue of overcoming as Jesus overcame is also continued in the 4th and 5th chapters of the same book.

Revelation 5:1-5 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.

Here is the Father sitting on the throne.

This is the throne that the Son (represented by the lamb) sat upon due to overcoming in a specific manner .
We are about to read how the Son overcame and sat down in the throne of the Father.

A book is shown in the right hand of the Father.

A cry is made for a worthy man to approach the throne and retrieve the book and open it.
None are fit to do so.
John weeps.
Humanity is lost since none are fit to retrieve the book.

But John is told to cease weeping.

Revelation 5:5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

The lion PREVAILED to open the book.

The synonym for the term prevail is overcome.
The lion OVERCAME!
We are reading how the Son of God overcame and sat down with His Father on His throne.

How did He overcome?

We are given clues.

Revelation 5:6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

The lion was said to be a lamb in the next verse.

Both represent the Son of God.
And there stood a lamb as it had been slain.
The only manner in which a slain lamb can stand is due to RESURRECTION.
John saw a symbol of the resurrected Christ!

The lamb had to overcome and prevail against something in order to take the book.

Something was hindering the retrieval of the book.
But the lamb overcame that hindrance.

And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.

After being slain and then rising again, the lamb took the book.

We are reading how Jesus the man overcame.

And the 24 elders and 4 beasts sang a song that went as follows:

Revelation 5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

The reason the lamb was able to take the book, and the reason the lamb overcame and prevailed was through his slaying and subsequent resurrection.

That slaying redeemed the ones singing.
There is only one thing that is redeemed by Christ’s death and resurrection... the people of the church.

At this point, we have to discover the reason for the picture of a LAMB redeeming the church, representing Jesus Christ.

Exodus 12:3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth [day] of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of [their] fathers, a lamb for an house:
Exodus 12:6-7 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike [it] on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
Exodus 12:12-13 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I [am] the LORD. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye [are]: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy [you], when I smite the land of Egypt.

After reading that all the firstborn of Egypt should die except the firstborn Hebrews who ensured they stay behind the door surrounded by blood, we read a strange statement.

Exodus 12:29 And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that [was] in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.

It reads that all the firstborn in Egypt died.

Although God told Moses the firstborn behind the blood-stained doorway would survive, we read that all the firstborn in Egypt died.
It sounds contradictory.
All of them did not actually die.
The Hebrews’ firstborn did not die.

But there is a special reason that verse 29 says all the firstborn, including the Hebrews’ firstborn died.

In God’s eyes, the death of the lamb in the home of the Hebrew firstborn counted as the death of that firstborn.
There was a death in every home.
But the Hebrews’ homes had the blessing of having the lamb’s death stand in place as the death of the Hebrew firstborn.

This entire concept is what is meant to be understood when we read Revelation 5.

Exodus later reads :

Exodus 13:15 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the LORD slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of beast: therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem.

God redeemed the firstborn of Israel with the Lamb.

Exodus 13:13 And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem.

The death of the lamb counted as the death of the firstborn.

And this is the sense we must keep in mind when we read Jesus say that we overcome as He overcame.

He overcame and prevailed by His death.

Nobody was able to do so before He came and died.
You might think that if someone merely had to die in order to overcome, then someone would have done so before He came, and did the same thing He did and thereby overcome.
But that was not possible.
No one was worthy to take the book before Christ came.
Nobody could overcome the way He did.

So how is it that we can overcome the way He overcame, if nobody could do so before He did it?

The answer is found in the Exodus Passover story.
The manner in which we overcome as He did, is by making his manner of overcoming our manner of overcoming.
In other words, HIS DEATH IS MADE OUR DEATHS.

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

We are baptized into His death thereby making His death become our deaths.

Romans 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; ...

We are become dead by the body of Christ.

In other words, His death is made our deaths.
Water Baptism is supposed to make His death our deaths.
The Spirit of God does the miracle as we obey the Gospel and believe that this will actually occur in the Spiritual.
His death becomes our deaths.
He overcome as He overcame.

After the 24 elders and 4 beasts sing of how the Lamb prevailed and overcame by His death, we read the following:

Revelation 5:10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

Recall that Jesus said if we overcame as He did, we would sit with Him in His throne as He overcame and sat down with His Father in His throne.

And so we see the lamb overcome and then we read that we will reign on the earth.

Think of this.

Some would think that the way to overcome is found in Jesus’overcoming.

True.
But they might erringly think we have to likewise find a cross, be nailed to it and see if we can raise ourselves up three days later.
Not true.

We do not read of the people all dying on crosses after they saw Christ die and rise again in overcoming victory, in order to thereby overcome and He overcame, and then sit on thrones and rule!

All that we read is that these people claim to be able to rule and reign in this earth because Jesus prevailed by His slaying.
How can that be?
How come we do not see them all die and rise after they saw Jesus do so?
It is because the manner in which we overcome as He overcame is to identify our lives to His death and claim His death as our deaths BY FAITH.
Recall that we overcome as He overcame, and also 1 John 5:4 says the victory that overcomes is our FAITH.
Put these two thoughts together and realize BY FAITH His death becomes our deaths, and we can say we really did overcome as He overcame.
In fact, its more literal than one might imagine!
His very death by which He overcame is made our deaths, and thereby we overcome!

This is the entire essence of the Gospel!

That is the reason we see people claiming the opportunity to reign on this earth after Jesus overcame by His death.

We overcome as He did and we reign on throne as He is.

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

These people overcome the devil by the blood of Jesus!

The blood of Jesus refers to His death.
This is how He overcame.
We overcome by the manner in which He overcame.
We overcome by His death.
In other words, His death becomes our deaths by faith, and we thereby overcome!

He is raised up to a throne.

Revelation 12:5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and [to] his throne.

And we are said to overcome and sit on his throne even as he overcame and sat on His father’s throne.

Although He is in heaven on the throne and we are down in thei world, we are said to reign in this world!

Revelation 5:10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

How can we sit in His throne that is in heaven and reign in this earth?

Ephesians 2:6 And hath raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus:

We are seated with Him in heaven BY FAITH.

We overcame as He overcame!

You can overcome the devil!