Victory as it turns out, is something entirely different to winning. When we talk about winning, we think about what we can win. What’s in if for us. When Jesus talks about victory, He’s talking about something entirely different. And it’s a victory that He would have us live out … for an eternity.   A Life that Really Counts “From Vanity to Victory” – that’s what we have been talking about these last few weeks on the programme and that’s what we are going to be talking about again today. Because I know that so many people … people even who believe in Jesus, many of them are living real lives of vanity rather than lives of victory. Lives that feel more or less, on the empty side. Lives that feel as though they lack meaning and purpose and direction; lives that leave us asking, "Is this all there is? Is this really what life is about? There’s not more to life than … this?" Or as Solomon put it: Vanity of vanities; vanity of vanities! Everything is a vanity. What do people gain from the toil at which they toil under the sun? So, today we are going to kick off our look at what constitutes a life of victory. What does a life of meaning and purpose and victory actually look like? Because if we can find such a life; if we can discover how to live such a life amidst all the pressures; all the realities going on in my life, all the pressures and realities going on in your life, it strikes me that will be a really, really worthwhile thing to do. Do you think? And there’s one life; one life above all other lives that brings this whole question of victory into sharper focus than any other. That’s the life that we are going to be looking at right now. It’s a life that began so well. Jesus born to Mary and Joseph in Nazareth in their ancestral home of Bethlehem. And then His awesome launch into public ministry – the baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Let’s read about it. Luke chapter 3, verse 21 and onwards: Now when all the people were baptised, and when Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. What an awesome start to His public ministry! Some people are blessed with an awesome start. The question is not so much how we start though, it’s how we finish that really counts all the more. And Jesus, right from the word go, had so much … I mean, so much to contend with – straight after His baptism, He is led out into the wilderness to starve for forty days and forty nights; to be tempted by the devil. And straight after that, He returns home to Nazareth to begin His public ministry as the Son of God and the people were so delighted that: ... all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, they drove Him out of town, they drove Him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they might hurl Him off the cliff Zippidy doodah! Welcome home Jesus! By now perhaps, you and I would be wondering, "Why am I doing this?" Perhaps you and I would have retreated to the relative safety of the carpenter’s shop where He grew up and consigned ourselves to living a life of meaninglessness, albeit a safe life. You know, there’s a thought, maybe that’s why so many people don’t have victory in their lives because they are not prepared to go into the dangerous places where we actually win victories. No battles, no victories, right? Maybe in the face of attacks and opposition and setbacks and a lack of approval from other people as Jesus had, we would have withdrawn to a life that it wasn’t our calling to live; a life that God had never planned; a life of comfort and safety; a life of pursuing our own pleasures, rather than God’s plan. Life that would lead us, like Solomon, to conclude: Vanity of Vanities … everything is a vanity. Everything is meaningless and empty.’ What benefit do I get from all this toil that I toil at under the sun? What do you think? Am I being a bit harsh? I don’t know. I think sometimes we think that serving God is all about winning; serving God is about having success; maybe serving God for Jesus should have been having a successful carpenter’s business that prospered? Is serving God more about meeting our needs? But the more I see of Jesus’ life, the more I see that victory; His brand of victory had very, very little to do with any of those things. The religious leaders came after Him with a meat cleaver; He was upsetting the status quo; He was preaching what they considered to be blasphemies; He was eating and drinking with tax collectors and prostitutes; He was healing people – can you believe this, on the Sabbath? I mean, how dare He? And then to top it all off, He declares Himself to be Lord of the Sabbath! "Something … something had to be done about this dangerous heretic," they murmured. "I know," says one of them, "Let’s have Him killed; let’s play the system with the Romans and get Him crucified. That will do it. Jesus loses, we win." That’s an all too simplistic; all too common view of victory. The world’s view; the view that we often carry around in our heads – victory is when I win – right? Again, listen to Jesus on the subject of being crucified. John chapter 10, beginning at verse 17: For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one is taking it away from me; I am laying it down of my own accord. I actually have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father. And what ensues – you can read it for yourself in the tenth Chapter of John’s Gospel – is how people hurl abuse at Him. They try to hurl stones at Him and then they try to have Him arrested! All because He claims to be the Messiah, the Son of God. All because He claims to be God. But when it comes to living a life of victory, the thing I want us to notice here is that victory for Jesus, was not about avoiding the Cross. Victory for Jesus was not about winning in the sense that you and I might think about winning. I mean, if we were in His shoes would we be trying pretty much save our own skin? Victory for Jesus was doing what He came to do. Victory for Jesus was doing His Father’s bidding, laying down His life voluntarily, and then taking it up again. Victory, as it turns out, has little or nothing to do with winning. Victory has everything to do with living out the call of God on our lives. Can I say that again? This is so important. Victory has nothing to do with winning. Victory has nothing to do with having a successful, prospering carpenter’s business in Nazareth – Victory has everything to do with living out the call of God on our lives. In pursuing victory, Jesus puts no premium on His life whatsoever. On His needs, on His comforts. And even when, as any man or woman would have done, He prays to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me". Obviously it concludes victoriously, yet, not I want, but yet your will be done. Victory was not to be found for Jesus huddled over His tools in the safety of Dad’s carpenter shop in Nazareth. That would have been pure vanity. No, victory to be found on the Cross as He laid down His life for you and me, so that our sins could be forgiven. Victory was to be found in the empty tomb as God’s power raised His Son to bring you and me a new life. Victory for Jesus was all about – completely about – what He did for His Father in heaven and what He did for you and for me. It had nothing to do with what He did for Himself. That is an astou...

Released on 14 Mar 2021