CHRIST THE OVERCOMER OF THE WORLD – Charles Spurgeon

CHRIST THE OVERCOMER OF THE WORLD

Introduction
“Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” — John 16:33.
When these words were spoken, our Savior was about to leave His disciples to go to His death for their sakes. His great anxiety was that they might not be too much cast down by the trials which would come upon them. He desired to prepare their minds for the heavy sorrows which awaited them, while the powers of darkness and the men of the world worked their will upon Him.

Now, observe, beloved, that our Lord Jesus, in whom dwells infinite wisdom, knew all the secret springs of comfort and all the hallowed sources of consolation in heaven and under heaven, and yet in order to console His disciples, He spoke not of heavenly mysteries nor of secrets hidden in the breast of God, but He spoke concerning Himself. Does He not teach us, then, that there is no balm for the heart like Himself, no consolation of Israel comparable to His person and His work? If even such a divine Barnabas, such a first-born son of consolation as the Lord Himself, must point to what He, Himself, has done, so He can make His followers be of good cheer, then how wise it must be in ministers to preach much of Jesus by way of encouragement to the Lord’s afflicted, and how prudent it is for mourners to look to Him for the comfort they need.

The Power of Christ’s Words
“Be of good cheer,” He said, “I”—something about Himself—“I have overcome the world.” So then, beloved, in all times of depression of spirit, hasten away to the Lord Jesus Christ! Whenever the cares of this life burden you and your way seems hard for your weary feet, fly to your Lord! There may be other sources of consolation, but they will not, at all times, serve your turn. But in Him there dwells such a fullness of comfort that whether it is in summer or in winter, the streams of comfort are always flowing! In your high estate or in your low estate and from whatever quarter your trouble may arise, you can resort at once to Him and you shall find that He strengthens the hands that hang down and confirms the feeble knees.

The Divine Nature of Christ
A further remark suggests itself that the Lord Jesus must be more than man from the tone which He assumed. There are certain persons who deny the Godhead of our Lord and yet think well of Jesus as a man. Indeed, they have uttered many highly complimentary things with regard to His character. But I wonder why it does not strike them that there is a great deal of assumption, presumption, pride, egotism, and all that style of folly in this man if He is nothing more than a man! For what good man whom you would wish to imitate would say to others, “Be of good cheer: I have overcome the world”? This is altogether too much for a mere man to say!

The Lord Jesus Christ frequently spoke about Himself, and about what He had done, and commended Himself to His disciples as one could never have done who was only a man and of a lowly mind. The Lord was certainly meek and lowly in heart, but no man of that character would have told others so. There is an inconsistency here which none can account for but those who believe Him to be the Son of God! Understand Him to be divine—put Him in His true position as speaking down out of the excellency of His Deity to His disciples—and then you can comprehend His so speaking. Yes, it becomes infinitely seemly and beautiful! Deny His Godhead and I, for one, am quite unable to understand how the words before us, and others like them, could ever have fallen from His lips—for none will dare to say that He was boastful! Blessed are You, O Son of man, You are also the Son of God, and therefore You not only speak to us with the sympathizing tenderness of a brother man, but with the majestic authority of the Only Begotten of the Father! Divinely condescending are Your words, “I have overcome the world.”

The Incomprehensibility of Christ’s Victory
If you look at this claim of Jesus without the eyes of faith, does it not wear an extraordinary appearance? How could the betrayed man of Nazareth say, “I have overcome the world”? We can imagine Napoleon speaking thus when he had crushed the nations beneath his feet and shaped the map of Europe to his will. We can imagine Alexander speaking thus when he had rifled the palaces of Persia and led her ancient monarchs captive, but who is this that speaks this way? It is a Galilean who wears a peasant’s garment, and consorts with the poor and the fallen! He has neither wealth nor worldly rank nor honor among men, and yet speaks of having overcome the world! He is about to be betrayed by His own base follower into the hands of His enemies and to be led out to judgment and to death, and yet He says, “I have overcome the world.” He is casting an eye to His cross with all its shame and to the death which ensued from it, and yet He says, “I have overcome the world.” He had not where to lay His head. He had not a disciple that would stand up for Him, for He had just said, “You shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone.” He was to be charged with blasphemy and sedition and brought before the judge, and find no man to declare His generation. He was to be given up to brutal soldiers to be mocked and despitefully used and spat upon! His hands and feet were to be nailed to the cross that He might die a felon’s death—and yet He said, “I have overcome the world.” How marvelous and yet how true! He spoke not after the manner of the flesh, nor after the sight of the eyes. We must use faith’s optics here and look within the veil—then we shall see not only the despised bodily person of the Son of man, but the indwelling, noble, all-conquering soul which transformed shame into honor and death into glory! May God the Holy Spirit enable us to look through the external to the internal and see how marvelously the ignominious death was the rough garment which concealed the matchless victory from the purblind eyes of carnal man!

Christ the Overcomer
During the last two Sabbath mornings, I have spoken of our Lord Jesus Christ—first, as the end of the law, and secondly, as the conqueror over the old serpent. Now we come to speak of Him as the overcomer of the world—addressing His disciples He said, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Now, what is this world that He speaks about? And how has He overcome it? And what good cheer is there in the fact for us?

What is This World?
I. What is this world to which He is referring? I scarcely know a word which is used with so many senses as this word, “world.” If you will turn to your Bibles, you will find the word “world” used in widely different ways, for there is a world which Christ made, “He was in the world and the world was made by Him”—that is, the physical world. There is a world which God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him might not perish. There are several forms of this favorable use. Then there is a world, the world here meant, which “lies in the wicked one”—a world which knows not Christ but which is ever more opposed to Him—a world for which He says that He does not pray and a world which He would not have us love—“Love not the world, neither the things which are in the world.”

Without going into these various meanings and shades of meaning, which are very abundant, let us just say that we scarcely know how to define what is meant here in so many words, though we know well enough what is meant. Scripture does not give us definitions, but uses language in a popular manner, since it speaks to common people. “The world” is very much the equivalent of the “seed of the serpent,” of which we spoke last Sunday. The world here means the visible embodiment of that spirit of evil which was in the serpent and which now works in the children of disobedience. It is the human form of the same evil force with which our Lord contended when He overcame the devil. It means the power of evil in the unregenerate mass of mankind, the energy and power of sin as it dwells in that portion of the world which abides in death and lies in the wicked one.

The Opposition of the World
The devil is the god of this world and the prince of this world, and therefore he who is the friend of this world is the enemy of God! The world is the opposite of the church. There is a church which Christ has redeemed and chosen out of the world and separated unto Himself from among men. And of these, as renewed by the power of divine grace, He says, “You are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” And again, “Because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” Now, the rest of mankind not comprehended among the chosen, the redeemed, the called, the saved, are called the world. Of these, our Lord said, “O righteous Father, the world has not known You.” And John said, “The world knows us not because it knew Him not.” This is the power which displays a deadly enmity against Christ and against His chosen—therefore it is called, “this present evil world,” while the kingdom of grace is spoken of as, “the world to come.”

This is the world of which it is said, “He that is born of God overcomes the world.” You will see that “the world” includes the ungodly themselves, as well as the force of evil in them. But it marks them out not as creatures nor even as men who have sinned, but as unregenerate, carnal, and rebellious, and therefore, as the living embodiments of an evil power which works against God—and so we read of “the world of the ungodly.”

Perhaps I ought to add that there has grown up out of the existence of unconverted men and the prevalence of sin in them, certain customs, fashions, maxims, rules, modes, manners, forces—all of which go to make up what is called, “the world,” and there are also certain principles, desires, lusts, governments, and powers, which also make up a part of the evil thing called, “the world.” Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world.” James speaks of keeping ourselves “unspotted from the world.” John says, “The world passes away and the lust thereof.” And Paul says, “Be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed.”

Moreover, I may say that the present constitution and arrangement of all things in this fallen state may be comprehended in the term, “world,” for everything has come under vanity by reason of sin and things are not, today, according to the original plan of the Most High as designed for man in His innocence. Behold, there are trials and troubles springing out of our very existence in this life, of which it is said, “in the world you shall have tribulation.” To many a child of God, there have befallen hunger and disease and suffering—and unkindness and various forms of evil which belong not to the world to come, nor to the kingdom which Christ has set up—but which come to them because they are in this present evil world which has become so because the race of men has fallen under the curse and consequence of sin. Now the world is all these matters put together—this great conglomeration of mischief among men, this evil which dwells here and there and everywhere men are scattered—this is the thing which we call the world. Every one of us knows what it is better than we can tell to anybody else, and, perhaps, while I am explaining, I am rather confusing than expounding. You know just what the world is to some of you—it is not more than your own little family, as to outward form, but much more as to influence. Your actual world may be confined to your own house, but the same principles enter into the domestic circle which pervades kingdoms and states. To others, the world takes a wide sweep as they necessarily meet with ungodly men in business, and this we must do unless we are to go altogether out of the world, which is no part of our Lord’s plan, for He says, “I pray not that You should take them out of the world.” To some who look at the whole mass of mankind and are called, thoughtfully, to consider them all because they have to be God’s messengers to them, the tendencies and outgoings of the human mind towards that which is evil, and the spirit of men’s actions as done against God in all nations and ages—all these go to make up to them, “the world.”

But be it what it may, it is a thing out of which tribulation will be sure to come to us. Christ tells us so. It may come in the form of a temporal trial of some shape or another. It may come in the form of temptation which will alight upon us from our fellow men. It may come in the form of persecution to a greater or lesser extent according to our position, but it will come! “In the world, you shall have tribulation.” We are sojourners in an enemy’s country, and the people of the land where we tarry are not our friends and will not help us on our pilgrimage to heaven. All spiritual men in the world are our friends, but then, like ourselves, they are in the world, but they are not of it. From the kingdom of this world, of which Satan is lord, we must expect fierce opposition against which we must contend even unto victory if we are to enter into everlasting rest.

How Christ Overcame the World
II. Now this brings me to the more interesting topic in the second place: How has Christ overcome the world? And we answer, first, He did so in His life, then in His death, and then in His rising and His reigning.

Christ Overcame the World in His Life
First, Christ overcame the world in His life. This is a wonderful study, the overcoming of the world in the life of Christ! I reckon that those first 30 years of which we know so little were a wonderful preparation for His conflict with the world, and that though only in the carpenter’s shop, obscure and unknown to the great outside world, yet in fact, He was not merely preparing for the battle, but He was, then, beginning to overcome it. In the patience which made Him bide His time, we see the dawn of victory. When we are intent upon doing good and we see mischief and sin triumphant everywhere, we are eager to begin. But suppose it were not the great Father’s will that we should be immediately engaged in the fray? How strongly would the world, then, tempt us to go forward before our time? A transgression of discipline may be caused by too much zeal, and this, as much as dullness or sloth, breaks through the law of obedience! The Roman soldier was accounted guilty who, when the army was left with the orders that no man should strike a blow in the leader’s absence, nevertheless stepped forward and slew a Gaul. The act was one of valor, but it was contrary to military discipline and might have had most baleful results—and so it was condemned. Thus it is sometimes with us. Before we are ready, before we have received our commission, we are in a hurry to step forward and smite the foe. That temptation must have come to Christ from the world many times—as He heard what was going on in the reign of error and hypocrisy. His benevolent impulses might have suggested to Him to be up and doing, had it not been that He was incapable of wrong desires. Doubtless He was willing to be healing the sick. Was not the land full of sufferers? He would gladly be saving souls—were they not going down to the pit by thousands? He would gladly have confuted error, for falsehood was doing deadly work—but His hour was not yet come. Our Lord and Master had nothing to say until His Father bade Him speak. We know He was under a strong impulse to be at work, for when He went up to the temple, He said, “Know ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” That utterance revealed the fire that burned within His soul, and yet He was not preaching nor healing, nor disputing, but still remained in obscurity all those 30 years because God would have it so. When the Lord would have us quiet, we are doing His will best by being quiet. But yet to be still and calm for so long a time was a wonderful instance of how all His surroundings could not master Him—not even when they seemed to work with His philanthropy—He still remained obedient to God and thus proved Himself the overcomer of the world.

Christ’s Faithfulness in His Testimony
When He appears upon the scene of public action, you know how He overcomes the world in many ways. First, by remaining always faithful to His testimony; He never modified it, not even by so much as a solitary word to please the sons of men. From the first day in which He began to preach, even to the closing sentence which He uttered, it was all the truth of God and nothing but the truth of God! It was the truth of God uncolored by prevailing sentiment, untainted by popular error. He did not, after the manner of the Jesuit, disguise His doctrine by so shaping it that men would hardly know but what it was the very error in which they had been brought up! Jesus came out with plain speaking and set Himself in opposition to all the powers which ruled the thought and creed of the age. He was no guarder of truth. He allowed truth to fight her own battles in her own way. And you know how she bares her breast to her antagonist’s darts and finds in her own immutable, immortal, and invulnerable life her shield and her spear. His speech was confident, for He knew that truth would conquer in the long run and, therefore, He gave forth His doctrine without respect to the age or its prejudices. I do not think that you can say that of anybody else’s ministry, not even of the best and bravest of His servants. We can see, in looking at Luther, great and glorious Luther, how Romanism tinged all that he did, more or less. And the darkness of the age cast some gloom even over the serene and steadfast soul of Calvin. Of each one of the reformers, we must say the same—bright stars as all of these were—yet they kept not themselves untarnished by the sphere in which they shone. Every man is more or less affected by his age, and we are obliged, as we read history, to make continual allowances, for we all admit that it would not be fair to judge the men of former times by the standard of the 19th century. But, sirs, you may test Christ Jesus, if you will, by the 19th-century light, if light it is! You may judge Him by any century; yes, you may try Him by the bright light of the throne of God! His teaching is pure truth of God without any mixture. It will stand the test of time and of eternity!

Christ’s Fearlessness in the Face of Popular Approval and Criticism
Observe Him next in the deep calm which pervaded His spirit at times when He received the approbation of men. Our Lord was popular to a very high degree at certain times. How the people thronged around Him as His benevolent hands scattered healing on all sides! How they approved of Him when He fed them! But how clearly He saw through that selfish approbation and said, “You seek Me because of the loaves and fishes.” He never lost His self-possession. You never find Him elated by the multitudes following Him. There is not an expression that He ever used which even contains a suspicion of self-glorification. Amid their hosannas, His mind is quietly reposing in God. He leaves their acclamations and applause to refresh Himself by prayer upon the cold mountains, in the midnight air. He communed with God, and so lived above the praises of men. He walked among them holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners—even when they would have taken Him by force and made Him a king! Once He rides in triumph, as He might often have done if He had pleased, but then it was in such humble style that His pomp was far other than that of kings! It was a manifestation of lowliness rather than a display of majesty. Amid the willing hosannas of little children, and of those whom He had blessed, He rides along, but you can see that He indulges none of the thoughts of a worldly conqueror, none of the proud ideas of the warrior who returns from the battle stained with blood. No, He is still as meek and as gentle and as kindly as ever He was! His triumph has not a grain of self-exaltation in it. He had overcome the world.

Christ’s Patience in the Face of Rejection
What could the world give Him, brothers and sisters? An imperial nature like His, in which the manhood held such close communion with Deity, is not readily to be imagined! What was there, here below, to cause pride in Him? If the trumpet of fame had sounded out its loudest note, what could it have been compared with the songs of cherubim and seraphim to which His ear had been accustomed throughout all ages? No, allied with His Deity, His manhood was superior to all the arts of flattery and to all the honors which mankind could offer Him. He overcame the world. He was the same when the world tried the other plan upon Him. It frowned at Him but He was still calm. He had scarcely commenced to preach before they would have cast Him headlong from the brow of the hill! Do you not expect, as they are hurrying Him to the precipice, to see Him turn round upon them and denounce them at least with burning words such as Elijah used? But no, He speaks not an angry word! He slips away and is gone out of their midst. In the synagogue, they often gnashed their teeth at Him in their malice, but if ever He was moved to indignation, it was not because of anything directed against Himself. He always bore all and scarcely ever spoke a word by way of reply to merely personal attacks. If calumnies were heaped upon Him, He went on as calmly as if they had not abused Him, nor desired to slay Him.

Christ’s Unselfishness and Power
The world could not drive Him from His purposes of love, nor could they make Him say anything or do anything that was contrary to perfect love! He calls down no fire from heaven—no she-bears come out of the woods to devour those who have mocked Him. No, He can say, “I have overcome the world,” for whether it smiles or whether it frowns, in the perfect peace and quiet of His spirit, in the delicious calm of communion with God, the man of Sorrows holds on His conquering way!

Christ’s Death and Resurrection
He overcame the world by His death, for by a wondrous act of self-sacrifice, the Son of God smote to the heart the principle of selfishness, which is the very soul and lifeblood of the world. There, too, by redeeming fallen man, He lifted man up from the power which the world exercises over him, for He taught men that they are redeemed, that they are no longer their own but bought with a price, and thus redemption became the note of liberty from the bondage of self-love and the hammer which breaks the fetters of the world and its lusts. By reconciling men unto God through His great atonement, He also has removed them from the despair which otherwise had kept them down in sin and made them the willing slaves of the world. Now they are pardoned, and being justified, they are made to be the friends of God! And being the friends of God, they become enemies to God’s enemies and are separated from the world—and so the world, by Christ’s death, is overcome.

Christ’s Reigning Power
But chiefly has He overcome by His rising and His reigning, for when He rose, He bruised the serpent’s head, and that serpent is the prince of this world and has dominion over it. Christ has conquered the world’s prince and led him in chains—and now has Christ assumed the sovereignty over all things here below. God has put all things under His feet. At His belt are the keys of providence. He rules among the multitude and in the council chambers of kings. As Joseph governed Egypt for the good of Israel, so does Jehovah Jesus govern all things for the good of His people.

The Holy Spirit and Christ’s Victory
Christ has overcome the world by the gift of the Holy Spirit. That gift was practically the world’s conquest. Jesus has set up a rival kingdom now—a kingdom of love and righteousness! Already the world feels its power by the Spirit. I do not believe that there is a dark place in the center of Africa which is not, to some extent, improved by the influence of Christianity. Even the wilderness rejoices and is glad for Him. No barbarous power dares to do what once it did, or if it does, there is such a clamor raised against its cruelty that very soon it has to say peccavi, and confess its faults. This moment the stone cut out of the mountain without hands has begun to smite old Dagon!

Christ’s Victory and Our Cheer
III. Now, lastly, What cheer is there here for us? Why, first, that if the man, Christ Jesus, has overcome the world at its worst, we, who are in Him, shall overcome the world, too, through the same power which dwelt in Him! He has put His life into His people! He has given His Spirit to dwell in them, and they shall be more than conquerors! He overcame the world when it attacked Him in the worst possible shape, for He was poorer than any of you! He was more sick and sad than any of you! He was more despised and persecuted than any of you! And He was deprived of certain divine consolations which God has promised never to take away from His saints—and yet, with all possible disadvantages—Christ overcame the world! Therefore be assured we shall conquer, also, in His strength.

Our Victory in Christ
Besides, He overcame the world when nobody else had overcome it. It was as it were a young lion which had never been defeated in fight. It roared upon Him out of the thicket and leaped upon Him in the fullness of its strength. Now, if our greater Samson did tear this young lion as though it were a kid, and fling it down as a vanquished thing, you may depend upon it that now it is an old lion—and gray and covered with the wounds which He gave it of old—we, having the Lord’s life and power in us, will overcome it, too! Blessed be His name! What good cheer there is in His victory!

Christ’s Victory and Our Assurance
He does as good as say to us, “I have overcome the world, and you, in whom I dwell, who are clothed with My Spirit, must overcome it, too.” But then, next, remember He overcame the world as our Head and representative, and it may truly be said that if the members do not overcome, then the head has not perfectly gained the victory. If it were possible for the members to be defeated, why then, the head, itself, could not claim a complete victory, since it is one with the members. So Jesus Christ, our covenant Head and representative, in whose loins lay all the spiritual seed, conquered the world for us, and we conquered the world in Him! He is our Adam and what was done by Him was actually done for us and virtually done by us! Have courage then, for you must conquer! It must happen to you as unto your head—where the head is, shall the members be—and as the head is, so must the members be!

Conclusion
And now, brothers and sisters, I ask you whether you have not found it so? Is it not true, at this moment, that the world is overcome in you? Does self govern you? Are you working to acquire wealth for your own aggrandizement? Are you living to win honor and fame among men? Are you afraid of men’s frowns? Are you the slave of popular opinion? Do you do things because it is the custom to do them? Are you the slaves of fashion? If you are, you know nothing about this victory! But if you are true Christians, I know what you say—“Lord, I am Your servant; You have loosed my bonds! From now on the world has no dominion over me, and though it tempts me, and frightens me, and flatters me, yet still I rise superior to it by the power of Your Spirit, for the love of Christ constrains me, and I live not unto myself and unto things that are seen, but unto Christ and to things invisible.”

If it is so, who has done this for you? Who but Christ the Overcomer, who is formed in you the hope of Glory? Be of good cheer, for you have overcome the world by virtue of His dwelling in you! So, brothers and sisters, let us go back to the world and its tribulations without fear! Its trials cannot hurt us! In the process, we shall get good, as the wheat does out of the threshing. Let us go forth to combat the world, for it cannot overcome us! There was never a man, yet, with the life of God in his soul, whom the whole world could subdue! No, all the world and hell together cannot conquer the smallest baby in the family of the Lord Jesus Christ! Lo, you are harnessed with salvation! You are covered with omnipotence! Your heads are covered with the protection of the atonement, and Christ, Himself, the Son of God, is your captain! Take up your battle cry with courage and fear not, for more is He that is for you than all they that are against you! It is said of the glorified saints, “They overcame through the blood of the Lamb”; “and this is the victory which overcomes the world, even our faith.” Be steadfast even to the end, for you shall be more than conquerors through Him that has loved you. Amen.

Charles Spurgeon