Just before He was crucified, Jesus told His somewhat frightened disciples that they should be of good cheer, because He’d overcome this world. Then the Romans nailed Him to a cross. Doesn’t sound very cheery to me. Doesn’t sound too much about “overcoming” to me.

Well, over these last couple of weeks we've been chatting about faith, the sort of faith that the Bible talks about, the sort of faith that overcomes the trials and the temptations that this world seems to throw at us.

Faith is an amazing thing as Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1 tells us:

It’s the assurance of things hoped for and the evidence of things we can't see.

If there was no God this life would be completely and utterly meaningless, you and I would just be an advanced life form on this planet, none of our laws really at the end of the day would mean anything.

No human life really would be worth anything and since our lives here on this earth are, in the scheme of things, but a fleeting instant in history eternity wouldn't mean anything and yet God creates us and He allocates the borders and the territories and He puts us here on this earth so that we might seek Him and find Him and know Him and love Him and be loved by Him.

The person who has faith has all things, the one who knows beyond any shadow of a doubt in their hearts that Jesus, the Son of God, came into this world to die to pay for their sins and to rise again to give them a new eternal life has all things though they may be poor by the world's standards.

The weak become strong; the poor become rich because the one who has Jesus has all in all. And we lay hold of Jesus, we embrace Him, we know Him by faith. Indeed without faith it's completely impossible to please God.

So what use is faith to you and me in practical terms? Well, often times we hope that our faith in God will help us overcome difficult circumstances. Often we hope that if someone is against us our faith will mean that we'll end up winning and they'll end up losing.

Do we see something of that in the Bible? Of course we do, we often see Gods people in the Old Testament turn to God in times of distress and God goes out and fights the battle for them and gives them victory over their enemies.

Sometimes that's what the Lord does in our lives, when we just feel to get out there amongst it and the forces of hell are unleashed against us, there is absolutely nothing wrong with praying in faith for victory so that the Lords will can prevail.

There's been many a time in my life when I've been up against it, when it seemed that people came against this ministry of Christianityworks and our mission to share the good news of Jesus with many, many people around the world. When our finances have been so difficult that we couldn't really see how we could possibly go on. When people that we'd relied on failed us and left us in a difficult spot.

Please don't ever think that just because here I am on the radio proclaiming the good news of Jesus that none of those things happen to us, they do and the more we preach Christ the more the enemy unleashes his armies against us. That's par for the course.

So when we're in a tough place should we turn to God as our first resort instead of our last? Should we rely on God’s faithfulness to overcome the obstacles and opposition that we face? Absolutely we should, He's our God and yet that's not always what He has in mind.

Sometimes His victories are so different to what we're expecting. There's something that Jesus said to His disciples in those final days before His crucifixion that must have seemed outrageous and plainly wrong to them as they heard it and as they lived through the next few days after He said it. Here it is, have a listen, John chapter 16, verses 32 and 33:

Jesus said to his disciples, 'The hour is coming indeed it has come when you'll be scattered each one to his home and you'll leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because of the Father.

I have said this to you so that in me you may have peace for in this world you will face persecution but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world’.

The very first verse speaks of the coming fear and trials that the disciples were going to face. You'll be scattered, you'll flee to your homes, you'll leave me alone. (Man if Jesus was saying that to me I would not have been impressed.) You will face persecution. Well, zippity do da, thank you for that Jesus. And yet, in the very next breathe He's saying, but I'm telling you all these things so that in me you might have peace, have courage because I have overcome, I have conquered the world.

Well you know, words are cheap. Not so long after that they see Him arrested, tried, beaten to within an inch of His life, bloodied, the flesh hanging in strips off His back where He had been whipped, lugging a cross up to Golgotha where He's nailed to it and He dies.

And yet this miracle man Jesus had said to them, "Take good courage, be of good cheer for I have overcome the world, I've conquered it." Let me ask you this, when He was hanging there on that Cross did He look much like a conqueror to you? Much of an overcomer in the eyes of His frightened disillusioned disciples who'd fled and left Him alone in His darkest hour just as He'd predicted?

Not likely and yet just a few days later to their absolute disbelief, even though He'd been telling them that this would happen, the one who'd they had seen dead and lifeless was alive again. He truly had conquered the grave, He'd conquered death, he had overcome the very worst outcome that there is – dying.

Do you see how the immediate circumstances of His trial and crucifixion shrouded the ultimate victory from His disciples gaze? And so my friend it often is with us. So often we're focused on a short term victory in this or that, a victory that all too often involves saving our own skins lets be honest, when all along our Father in heaven is working out His ultimate victory in our lives and in order to realise that ultimate victory for a time we may have to suffer and our faith has a huge role to play in realising that ultimate victory.

Listen to what the Apostle John wrote, 1 John chapter 5, verse 4:

For whatever is born of God conquers the world and this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Ultimately it's the one who believes in Jesus who He says will conquer this world because in Jesus Christ you and I have victory over death, victory over the grave, victory over this world.

As we're travelling through the short term pain of this lifetime that's what keeps us pressing on to the end, the truth that in Christ Jesus we have eternal life. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 6:

In this you rejoice even if now for a little while you've had to suffer various trials so that the genuineness of your faith be more precious than gold though perishable, is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus is revealed.

To that you and I cry Hallelujah. Through Him we have victory over the grave. There are going to be times in this life when you and I feel like losers but in those moments God is faithful, His love is faithful, His promises are true and we have all that we need to make it through.

For me to be able to serve you with the truth today is such a privilege. Take this truth, hold it close to your heart because through your faith in Jesus Christ, as weak and as tenuous as it may feel on some days, you have overcome this world. I have said these things to you so that in Him you may have peace.