OK, this is going to take us back about a thousand years…literally.  That’s because our topic today deals with something long forgotten — but is being very much revived today — in the Church.  This was so big in the Church for the first 1,000 years after Christ’s ascension that everything revolved around it.  At times it ended many debates.  It turned the tables on every dissenter.  In fact, when we look at the early sermons in the book of Acts (which we will in a moment), it is the pinnacle of the argument.  The topic is the Lord Jesus as victor, and we find it in 1 Corinthians 15:57.  Beginning in the verse 56, it says, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The point we must make at the outset is that God can’t give what he doesn’t have.  No one can.  For God to give the victory he must have the victory; it must be his to give.  The victory was won by his Son, through whom he gives it.  That makes Christ the victor.  While on Friday it looked like he was a victim, on Sunday he was very much the victor.  Such thinking is the basis for that famous sermon, “It’s Friiiday, but Suunnday’s Comin’!”

Let’s consider those sermons in Acts.  Our first, Peter on Pentecost, was delivered immediately after the Spirit came in dramatic power (1:8), with tongues of fire matching their linguistic counterparts (1:3-4).  Peter begins his case for the international Jews gathered there for the festival and arrives at his pinnacle (vs. 31-33): “Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay.  God raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.  Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.”  Notice that there is no modern day gospel presentation or explanation.  It’s simply the storyline and the facts. “God raised this Jesus to life.”  That’s it.

Peter gave a second, and similar, sermon in the next chapter.  Standing in Solomon’s Colonnade (v. 11), Peter began speaking after he and John healed “a man crippled from birth” (v. 2).  Attributing the source of healing power to Jesus, this sermon was comparatively shorter than Pentecost’s.  He was able to get to the point faster: “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murder be released to you.  You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.  We are witness of this.  By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong.  It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see” (vs. 14-16).  Don’t miss the foundational point in the explanation of the power source.  Jesus’ return to life is the hinge.

Paul quickly picked up on the point too.  In his first recorded sermon after the church in Antioch sent him and Barnabas out as missionaries, he hits the high point in 13:30 — “But God raised him from the dead.”  There it is again, in black and white.  No if’s, and’s or but’s about it.  The storyline and the facts.  No gospel elaboration, no theological explanation; just the plain unvarnished truth: man was losing, God sent his Son to win the day.  And when he rose from the dead, he became the victor, the champion.  Thus, anyone clinging to his coattails by faith follows him to heaven to experience the spoils of victory.  Anselm (1033-1109), the Archbishop of Canterbury nearly a thousand years ago, was perhaps the first church leader of the Middle Ages to elaborate on this and other theological meanings of the atonement.

More recently, however, Christ the victor is making a deep impression on Muslims.  The Koran clearly says that Allah quickly snatched Jesus away shortly before his scheduled execution on the cross because he would never allow his Prophet to go through such humiliation, degradation and shame.  He would maintain his honor, extremely important in shame-based cultures.  However, what brings more honor: the Koran’s scenario, or the following, where Jesus, in a matter of speaking, said, “Go ahead… Give me your best shot,” where he did experience all the horrors of the cross, he did die and was buried, but then rose triumphantly and said (in essence), “Now, see if you can top that! And see if you stop me now!”  No, you don’t increase honor by avoiding trouble, only by victoriously going through it.

Our victory of faith (1 John 5:4) is ours because of his victory over sin and death on the cross.  All our victories are based on his. Is your life and walk with Christ one of victory? Do they point to the Victor?