Transcribed by Beluga AI.
Thank you, Daniel. It’s good to see you. We have an important announcement at the end of the service, so if you’re watching online, please stay to the very end.
Please turn with me to Revelation 12:11. This is one of my life verses, one of my favorite verses. It makes me wonder, will I be a martyr one day? I don’t know if I… Yeah, I don’t know if this is a good life verse to have. Revelation 12:11.
11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. (Revelation 12:11, ESV)
Okay, let’s pray.
Father, for those of us who are followers of Christ, we’ve counted the cost. And in Christ we are overcomers. Everything that life throws at us, every deception that Satan tries to trip us up with, we overcome in Christ. And we’ve counted the cost.
Even if it costs us our very lives, we are willing to pay the highest price to be faithful, to persevere to the end, to hold on to our faith. Give us this resurrection faith. Give us a faith that overcomes everything that we face in life, so that we can see you in eternal life.
Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
It says overcome, verse 11. And they have overcome him. Who is the him? You look at the previous verse. It is the accuser of our brothers who’s been thrown down, who accuses us day and night.
10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. (Revelation 12:10, ESV)
And we all know who he is. He is Satan. He is the ruler of this world, and at every turn, he is trying to trip us up. But in Christ, we overcome. We overcome.
Last week we covered Revelation 2 and 3. I gave you some homework. But this is not a class. There is no test. It’s just between you and the Lord. And I asked a question last week: what is your score as you look at these seven churches? They’re commended for certain things, they’re critiqued for certain things. They are given a charge at the end, all seven of them.
And I asked you to look at these texts more closely and examine. Are you passing? Are you thriving? Are you acing all the examination of Christ, who has His church and His messengers, His angels, in His right hand? He is the one who searches us, who knows us.
And as you look at these churches, what is your score? And Hill Community Church, what is our score? That was the homework and the assignment for the week.
I looked at the church in Ephesus, and it says they have to overcome. And what do they have to overcome? Because it sounds on paper that this church in Ephesus is doing quite well in Revelation 2. It says they work hard. They have great discernment. They can identify false teachers, whereas many people cannot identify false teachers. They are patiently enduring.
So what is wrong with this church if they are commended for all of these things?
And as I looked at it more closely, they are overcome by the busyness with secondary things, and they’ve missed out on the primary thing, which is to be a lover of Christ.
Good is always the enemy of the best. God gave me a dream this week. I was sitting on it. I didn’t know why He gave me this dream. And this is a very important week for me and my family. And He gave me a dream, and I was sitting on it. I was back in a previous church context in the Bay Area, and it was hustling and bustling, with a lot of ministry happening and just finding myself drawn to this in the dream.
And then I woke up. Like, why was I drawn to this thing? Then He gave me a song I was singing as I woke up. Maybe you knew it growing up. It is “Deep, deep, oh, deep down, down. Deep down in my heart, I love you, Jesus. Deep, deep, oh, deep down, down. Deep down in my heart.”
And the chorus goes, “Do you love your Jesus deep down in your heart?” And the crowd says, “Yes, I love my Jesus deep down in my heart.”
I didn’t sing it.
And as I was drawn to ministry, to me it’s like, this is a secondary thing. And God was making sure deep down in my heart, do I love ministry or do I love Jesus? It’s a question we have to wrestle with. If we love ministry more, then Satan has won, Satan has won. If you love church, Satan has won. If you love relationships and gathering with your friends, Satan has won. If that’s the primary reason for the foundation of your faith, deep down is their love for Jesus.
And that was the interpretation He gave me this morning.
Good is the enemy of the best. We must overcome other secondary good things and blessings in order to not forfeit what is greatest and best.
Church in Smyrna. What do they have to overcome? Not much. This is actually a commendable church through and through. And Jesus just warns them there’s going to be tribulation, possible martyrdom, but just hang on to the end. Endure to the end, hold on to your faith to the end, and you will overcome. It’s going to be short. Soon you’ll be with me in glory. Just hold on. No other critique, just a commendable church. They are passing with flying colors, and with this last exhortation, I bet all of them made it to glory.
Third church in Pergamum, what do they have to overcome? They have to overcome deception. Balaam’s teaching and the teaching of the Nicolaitans, ministers who, deep down in their heart, love money, and ministers who abuse grace and say one thing but live entirely differently. For the church in Pergamum, the saints who are gathered there, they must overcome deception.
The church in Thyatira, what do they need to overcome? They also need to overcome deception. There’s a woman called Jezebel, and that’s not a great woman to have as a believer. I don’t know what mom or dad would name their daughter Jezebel, but that’s her name, and she calls herself a prophetess. The name should give it away. She is not on the Lord’s side. And yet these people cannot discern, and this prophetess is speaking, and the saints are going to her. They need to overcome deception.
The Church in Sardis. Let me read this one. It’s actually significant. Revelation 3:1.
1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. (Revelation 3:1, ESV)
A reputation. If you’ve been in a church, if you’ve been a leader in a church, you have a certain reputation. Everything is hanging on that reputation. But only God knows that many pastors are spiritually dead. Many elders are spiritually dead. They have the title, they have the reputation, but inwardly they’re dying. They’re actually dying and possibly even dead. They need to overcome this living before the praise of men, this reputation that precedes them.
They assume everything is good. I am spiritually doing well. They need to look deeper in their heart. Do I love Jesus? Do I love Jesus?
The church in Philadelphia—I’m glad the church in Philadelphia is also commendable. I am from Philadelphia. What do they have to overcome? Not much. It’s just an encouragement. Just hang on, hold fast, persevere to the end.
Church in Laodicea—I want to read verse 17 of Revelation 3.
17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. (Revelation 3:17, ESV)
What we say about ourselves doesn’t matter. What we say about each other doesn’t matter because we are often blind. What Jesus says of us is what counts. And here God says one thing and it doesn’t match what the people are saying about themselves. So what do they have to overcome? They have to overcome lukewarmness and blindness.
So among these seven churches I see, specifically five of them are targeted by Satan. And out of the five, four fell spiritually. That’s not good odds. The chips are stacked against you and me and the other churches where Satan is not overtly targeting them. You know, Satan is targeting all of them. But five explicitly, you see the instruments of darkness that are infiltrating the churches. And four out of the five are utterly, utterly falling. And how are they falling? They’re falling to Satan and his deceptions.
And we as Christians need to overcome. We need to overcome. What are we overcoming? Jesus gives a parable in Luke 9, and He describes a strong man that’s fully armed. He’s guarding his palace, his house, and everything that he has in his house are safe. And that is a picture of Satan.
As soon as you are born, you’re born behind enemy lines. You’re born in satanic territory. And from birth, he had you, and he was pulling you down to hell from birth. I had a recurring nightmare all through my childhood. I was being pulled down to Hades, to Sheol, down to hell. And I felt myself falling through the floor all the time. And it’s because I didn’t know Jesus. Of course, that would be my experience. I was deathly afraid.
But then it goes on to say that there is a stronger man who comes in and plunders the house and takes all the goods. And that stronger man is Jesus Christ. And Jesus has plundered the satanic territory, all the people who are in bondage to blindness, deception, to worldliness. And one by one, He plucked us out of hell and put us on a firm foundation of Jesus Christ. And from that point forward, we’ve been following this man named Jesus.
Another picture that we see in the Gospels is John 16, toward the end. He says, “I have said these things to you”—this is verse 33—”that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation.” The mixed bag that Daniel is speaking of. Tribulation, difficulty, trials, hard days.
But Jesus says, “Take heart.” Don’t lose your heart. Don’t give in. Don’t be overcome by this world and the tribulations that this world brings and Satan brings on your doorstep. We have Jesus. And He says, “Take heart. I have overcome the world.”
33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, ESV)
Jesus is saying. And then He does it. He proves it by dying on a cross, resurrecting three days later. And now He says you too, and me, you too, will overcome. You must overcome.
It’s no accident that out of all of the people that could have received this revelation of Jesus Christ, the final revelation, the full revelation of who Jesus is, not just a nice little humble carpenter, a lamb who was slain, but this lion of Judah who’s going to come to conquer and utterly defeat all of His enemies as He wraps up things and ushers in a new heaven, new earth—that out of all the people who could have received this revelation of Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation, it came to John the Apostle, an apostle of Jesus Christ, because he speaks about overcoming all over 1 John.
I’m just going to read a few verses and then we’ll close. 1 John 2:13, the second half: “I’m writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one.”
13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. (1 John 2:13, ESV)
Is that your testimony? That when Satan comes knocking on your door that you have testimony by the blood of the Lamb that you have overcome the evil one and his world?
John knows young men, young women. He’s thinking, not in a general sense. He’s writing specifically to people. He says when you were young, I saw you. You overcame. Are we overcoming individually? Are we overcoming, Hill Community Church, Satan and the world?
1 John 4:4.
4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4, ESV)
And actually, let me look at the surrounding verses. I think they are important.
1 John 4. Who are “them”? Who is John referring to? He’s speaking of the Antichrist in the spirit of the Antichrist.
And then verse five and six, it says,
5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:5-6, ESV)
And that’s a bold statement that John is saying. John the Apostle is saying, “If you listen to me, I am so confident that God is speaking that if you listen to my words, you’re listening to the Holy Spirit, who is pointing you to the true Jesus. And if you listen to me, you’re not going to listen to these false people.”
The false people are popular. They are coming from the world. The whole world listens to them. They have a huge following. And you would think if they have a huge following, that means they’re vetted out, right? That means they’re mainstream, they’re trustworthy, they’re reputable. Look at this. The world is flocking to them. Everyone wants to interview them. They are known by the world. Apostle Paul said that’s a clue. If the world is listening to them, you want to stay away.
Apostle John is—he doesn’t speak of many churches he planted. I’m guessing he’s writing to a small group of believers, so in his contemporary day, he’s a nobody. Not many people would know him in the world, but there must have been a lot of popular false apostles, preachers, and teachers who are gaining quite a following. And the world is listening to them.
And the word for the Antichrist, we think it’s somebody with a pitchfork and a red cape. Satan is not that. He’s much more clever than that. He’s going to masquerade as an angel of light. He’s going to mix in truth and error. And if you don’t know your Scripture, you will not be able to tell that what you just heard is actually not true. If it’s 99% true, but 1% of error has been mixed in there, that means 100% is not true. That means you shut off your ear.
Look at how Satan tempted Jesus. He quoted the Bible, but he just misapplied it. 100% from the Bible, you can find what he said. It is in the Old Testament. Preachers can preach from the Bible, but you have to test the spirits. Who are these? Who has inspired them to speak? Is it from the world? Is it from the spirit of the Antichrist? Antichrist means in place of Christ, meaning the most clever deceptions in the world. When you listen to them one time, two times, ten times, you can’t tell. But if you stay with them long enough, you see the fruit, because you know a tree by its fruit. Antichrist spirit will put a counterfeit Christ into your hands.
You know, sometimes babies, they just reach up. They’re reaching up for their dad or mom’s hand. And sometimes they just reach up and they just grab a random person’s hand. Have you ever seen that? And then they look up, say, “Oh, you’re not my parent.”
If we’re not careful, a false teacher will slip in. The Antichrist spirit will slip in a counterfeit Jesus. And if you die in that state, as you read Revelation 2 and 3, if you do not overcome this deception, you will lose it all. That’s why it’s so serious. That’s why almost every letter in the New Testament talks about false teaching. It is that big of a deal to the Lord. That’s why Jesus, when He examines His church, whether you see false teaching or not, is a big, big deal.
We must overcome false teaching by knowing the true Jesus and by knowing His word. 1 John 5:4-5.
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:4-5, ESV)
When Jesus says, “I overcome the world,” He’s talking about this system that we’re living in, this matrix that we’re living in, where he is the ruler. He controls all the key centers of information and politics and entertainment. You just watch a music video, outright satanic, all of them. But you’re, like, listening to the music. You think it’s catchy. Watch the video. You see what’s inspiring these musicians? Where is this coming from? It’s satanic.
You just go through this educational system from K through 12 to college, and you come out of the system as an atheist. It’s by design. You’re being brainwashed that there is no God. My anthropology classes, they just mocked Christians all day long. How could you believe in such a foolish thing? They just outright mock God. I wish I had more faith. Then I would just stand up and say, “What you said is false.” And I wish if I could transport back into my anthropology class that I would stand up in Dwinell Hall and say, “No, that’s false, Professor.” I wish I had the boldness to say that.
But Satan, he controls this world, so by just being in this world, the chances of you and I becoming a Christian, naturally, automatically, it just will not happen. Quite the contrary. You just naturally go with the flow. You will flow all the way on this wide road to destruction.
So Jesus overcame the world. What specifically is He overcoming? Of course, He’s overcoming Satan. Satan is coming for Him. All the days of His life, must have tried to take Him out at every turn. But He was protected. He was faithful. He did not swerve from His assignment. He kept listening to His Heavenly Father. He only did what his father said. He was so surrendered. He’s a model for the Christian, how we should live our lives. He also had to endure the religious system that was just jealous of Him. Why are all these people flocking to this carpenter rabbi? He has no title. He didn’t graduate from our schools. Why is everybody going to this man? And our synagogue attendance is dropping and our offering is dropping.
He’s overcoming the religious system. And there’s just many people in churches that are part of this system. And unfortunately, it’s the preachers that are just promoting a religious system. It’s like they’re building their little empire. They don’t really care about God’s kingdom. They don’t think beyond the church walls. They just think is there enough offering? Do people respect me? Am I invited to their home for dinners? And do they give me gifts? Like that’s what’s on their mind.
And Jesus overcomes the world.
And He says, by your faith, our faith, we also overcome in Christ. And I want to personalize it. Are you, am I overcoming the world, Satan, deception, false teachers, religious systems, worldliness, popularity contests, idolatry?
Are we overcoming the world with my faith, your faith? I want you to personalize it. Are you, are we overcoming Satan and the world? We must. This is not optional. This is not only for the super Christian missionary who is martyred in Iraq. We’re talking about every one of us must overcome everything that I talked about. You must overcome all of it.
And in Christ you will. If you’re born of God and you have genuine faith in the real Jesus, you will overcome.
If you’re limping along, if you’re struggling, if that’s 99% of your life, maybe you’re deceived. Maybe you reached up and you grabbed a stranger’s hand because the spirit of the Antichrist has slipped in and you could not detect it.
I pray that all of us would overcome in Christ all of Satan’s schemes and traps and tribulations and difficulties. May we hold on to the real Jesus all the way to the end. And I’ll see you on the other side.
Okay, let’s pray.
Thank you, Father, for sending Jesus to us so that we can be adopted into your family. Thank you, Jesus, for being obedient to your Heavenly Father, our Heavenly Father, to your Abba Father. The Father was in you. You were in the Father. You only did what the Father said. You were so obedient, so surrendered. And you were obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And you overcame Satan and Satanic deception and temptations.
You became a man. Every temptation common to man, you endured all of it. No wonder you’re such a high priest who can sympathize with human weakness. And you overcame the world, and now you invite your church worldwide to also overcome the world.
You’re examining Hill Community Church. Where do we fall short? You’re examining us individually. Where do I fall short? Deep down in my heart, do I love Jesus, or do I elevate secondary things more and love that more? That is idolatry. That is disrespectful. That is someone who doesn’t know the greatness and the beauty of our Lord.
May all of us search our hearts with your Spirit’s help because the Spirit speaks. May we have ears to hear what you’re saying to your church.
If we don’t love Jesus, may we start loving Him today more than anything, more than ministry, more than missions, more than impact in this world. Who cares about all of that if we don’t love Jesus deep down in our hearts?
Your Word is a mirror. May we not look at a mirror, which is your Word, and then forget what we look like and just be hearers of the Word, but not doers of the Word. Saying that we love Jesus is not sufficient. We need to prove it by how we live. May we be doers of the Word who look at the mirror of God’s Word, look at ourselves honestly, and assess. How are we scoring?
As you examine all of your churches, you have the angels in your right hand. Minister to us as we remember Your Body that was broken for us and your blood that was shed. You overcame Satan and the world, death, Hades; you overcame all of them at Calvary as you died and you bled on a cross.
And now we remember your blood that was shed and Your Body that was broken. We celebrate your victory and we want to be victorious as well. We want to be overcomers in this life.
Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
And after you’ve prayed, if the Lord allows you, the Lord’s Supper will be here with you. And we partake it together as a symbol of our unity in Christ.