By: Dale Weckbacher
Acts 1:8
But you shall receive
power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
NKJV
In the last half of John 16:33, Jesus tells his disciples
that in the world they will have tribulation.
If this verse ended at this point, it would be depressing. Fortunately, however, Jesus goes on to tell
his disciples that He has overcome the world.
Taken in its context, this verse takes on even greater meaning for it
inspires us to live as victors and not victims.
The words spoken by Jesus in John 16:33 occurred during
Jesus final talk with His disciples at the Last Supper. During Jesus ministry he had healed the sick,
opened blinded eyes, and even raised the dead.
The disciples might have believed these miracles were a demonstration of
how Jesus had overcome the evil in the world.
However, Jesus statement that he had overcome the world in John 16:33
was prophetic for the very next day Jesus would suffer a cruel death by
crucifixion and three days later fulfill Genesis 3:15 crushing the serpent,
Satan’s head and overcome the curse of sin placed upon humanity by Adam and
Eve’s sin.
Previously, in his conversation with Nicodemus Jesus stated that
God sent His only Son into the world and that if we believe in Him, we can have
eternal life. Paul then went on to write
in Romans 10:9-10 that if we believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of
Jesus, we would be saved. Therefore,
taken together, these verses are telling us that God wants us to live as
victors because of what Christ has done and not victims for even though we all
experience struggles in life, Jesus has overcome them all through His death on
the cross.
Unfortunately, our world often places victims on a pedestal,
encouraging them to continue living as victims instead of striving to become
victors. We see this playing out in,
1)
Education – There was a time in education when
the system encouraged students to work hard and achieve the highest score. Granted, not everyone in class could achieve
the highest score but in striving to achieve this level, all students were
encouraged to work hard and if they failed to achieve the highest score, work
harder next time to do so. The theory
was equality of opportunity in education with unequal outcomes based on effort
and merit. Unfortunately, the education
system has replaced achievement-based education with outcome-based education
praising everyone for high achievement despite his or her effort. The thought is that this will prevent those
struggling in class from having hurt feelings over not achieving the highest
score. However, no thought is put into
those putting in great effort only to see those putting in less effort praised
for their achievement.
2)
Media – The latest craze in media are reality
shows. On the surface these programs
appear to reward effort and achievement because in the end there is only one
winner. However, viewers of these shows
often select the winners and vote for the greatest victim and instead of the
highest achiever. The news media as well
parades victim after victim before the public encouraging us to have compassion
on them for the plight in which they are living. Instead of sharing stories of how someone was
able to rise from the pit of their situation through hard work and achievement,
those that have achieved are vilified and touted as winners in lifes
lottery.
3)
Politics – Media vilified Presidential Candidate
Mitt Romney in 2012 for his 47 percent comment.
(1) However, the numbers supporting his comment
show that our political system has evolved, or devolved in my opinion, into a
system rewarding victims with continual government subsistence. Now I am not against the government assisting
individuals going through a rough time in their lives but these programs also
need to have the goal of encouraging people to become victors and not remain
victims. The 1996 welfare reform act was
a step in correcting this situation but unfortunately, the Obama Administration
has chosen through executive order to return the welfare program to encouraging
eternal victimhood instead of placing people on a path to victory. (2)
4)
Churches – Capitalism has a proven record of
accomplishment making it the best,
although not perfect, economic system for an individual to rise from abject
poverty to wealth than any other man-made economic system. (3) However, instead of touting capitalism as a
path to escaping poverty, Pope Francis condemns it in favor of government
mandated wealth redistribution. (4) Granted scripture encourages Christians to be
compassionate to the poor (Matthew 25:31-46).
However, Jesus is speaking of each individual voluntarily giving out of
compassion and not a forced system of wealth redistribution directed by
government mandate. In fact, I believe
the most compassionate thing anyone can do is offer a poor person an
opportunity to succeed through his or her own efforts, empowering them to live
victoriously and not as victims.
Knowing His disciples would experience great persecution and
martyrdom after his ascension, Jesus knew His disciples might wallow in their
victimhood instead of living in the victorious provision of salvation provided
by the cross and confidently spreading this good news to the world. This is why He told his disciples in Acts 1:8
to wait for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
He knew they would need this power to continue living victoriously in
spite of the struggles they would face.
As Christians, we have the knowledge that Jesus overcame the
curse placed on humanity through his death on the cross and all we are required
to do is believe. We also have the power
of the Holy Spirit within us and the promises contained in the Word of God to
empower us to live victoriously and not as victims. Let us therefore live not as victims but as
victors through Christ in this dark world directing them to how they too can
live victoriously.
1. Hobson, Jeremy. The numbers behind Mitt
Romney's 47% comment. www.marketplace.org. [Online] Marketplace Campaign
Trail, September 18, 2012. [Cited: November 23, 2013.]
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/elections/campaign-trail/numbers-behind-mitt-romneys-47-comment.
2. Rector, Robert.
Obama's End Run on Welfare Reform, Part One: Understanding Workfare. www.heritage.org.
[Online] The Heritage Foundation, September 19, 2012. [Cited: April 24,
2016.]
www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/09/obamas-end-run-on-welfare-reform-part-one-understanding-workfare.
3. Tanner, Michael.
Occupy Wall Street is Wrong - It's the Best System for Everyone. www.nationalreview.com.
[Online] The National Review, September 18, 2013. [Cited: April 24, 2016.]
www.nationalreview.com/article/358771/capitalisms-triumph-michael-tanner.
4. Dalmia, Shikha.
The Pope's Self-Defeating Anti-Capitalistic Rant. reason.com. [Online]
Reason.com, December 3, 2013. [Cited: December 19, 2013.]
http://reason.com/archives/2013/12/03/the-popes-self-defeating-anti-capitalist.
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