Sunday's Coming

"You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above." John 19:11..."One of the amazing ironies about the crucifixion of Jesus is that while evil is winning the battle - rather handily in fact - God is winning the war." Chris Tiegreen

Jesus' words in the midst of what appeared to be His total defeat must be taken to heart by those who are His. We certainly are living in a day in our culture where the darkness seems to be beating back His Light. Yet appearances are deceiving. They were 2000 years ago as Christ stood before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, and they remain so today in the face of all the political and social upheaval and the threat of Covid-19. The enemy seems to be running wild through the camp of the people of God. It's a lie. As Tiegreen says, "God hasn't lost His grip on the devil's leash." He never has. He never will.

It's popular in some places to say that the devil knows he's defeated. A pastor friend of mine disputes that, saying that to the contrary, he refuses, and will always refuse to believe that he's beaten. But he is beaten and his defiance will not change the outcome of what the purposes of our God are in the midst of what might appear to be reality. Jesus was crucified on a Friday, and He rose on the third day, Sunday. There's an Easter sermon titled, "It's Friday, but Sunday's coming." We, His people, must live in that truth, that reality. No matter how dark and desperate our "Friday" may be, His Sunday is coming. Trust in that. Trust in Him.

Right now in this world and particularly in our culture, Satan is raging. Much is happening that we may well ask God, "Why?" It may seem that His presence and power are missing, and the enemy clearly has the upper hand. We may feel ourselves as victims of it all. Our response must be as that of our Lord. We answer the enemy's terrorizing with our own holy defiance. He has no power over us but for what our Father has allowed him, and that power is only temporary. We're not victims at all. We're victors. Not just in eternity, but in the present. We will "see the glory of the Lord in the land of the living."

In our rational, logical westernized way of seeing things, we have lost sight of the spiritual war that takes place ceaselessly around us, and too often, within us. As a result, we judge all by our circumstances and natural senses instead of by His Word and our knowledge of Him. Jesus, as He stood before the arrogant power of Rome, the mightiest empire in the world, knew that it was He who is the Victor. We must do the same. We must know and live in the truth of what Joseph, sold by his jealous brothers into slavery in Egypt more than a 1000 years before Christ, knew. That what the enemy meant through them for his harm, God had turned into good. He rose from enslaved prisoner to governor of all Egypt, and was the instrument of saving his people, near death in a famine.

The devil, and his many tools, Pilate, the Pharisees, Rome itself, never saw the resurrection coming. When he did see it, he fled before His power. We can be sure of this; His resurrection power has not lessened and we will see it unleashed in the midst of these days. How and when are in His hands, but it will take the enemy, who thinks he has the upper hand, completely by surprise again. Take heart, in whatever place you may find yourself today. It may be Friday, but Sunday is coming.

Blessings,

Pastor O