Brother, Champion, and Lord
- Joe Palmisano
- Sep 29
- 6 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
THEME: Can anything separate us from victory in Jesus?
In Pastor Dan’s message from the second chapter of the Book of Revelation, he spoke of Jesus’ words, given to the Apostle John for His church in Smyrna. In this letter, and as emphasized by our Pastor, Jesus told this church that He was aware of their afflictions and poverty, as well as the slanderous arrows. Did the letter say, “Do not worry, because I will stop it immediately and rain revenge on those who slander you,” or “I will make you wealthy and successful, and the envy of all your enemies.” No, in verse 10 of this letter, Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you; the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.” (Revelation 2:10 NIV). He told them, and is telling us, the afflictions will continue, and the tests will keep coming, but through it all, you are rich. But how?
I loved the illustration Pastor Dan chose to use about Commander Stockdale and the “Hanoi Hilton.” Stockdale’s attitude was one of realizing that the torture, abuse, and hatred would not cease while they were prisoners. They were on enemy soil. He did not try to look beyond each day, nor did he construct false, optimistic solutions in his head that would always disappoint and depress him. Jesus said the same thing to his disciples, as recorded in John’s Gospel, chapter 15, verse 19: “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” No sugar coating there.
But how can we have victory in a world determined to go against us, and a crown in a fallen, alien world? As Pastor Dan showed us, through the words of Commander Stockdale, “I never lost faith in the end of the story.” It is a matter of who and what we are focused on and allowing ourselves to see who Jesus is.
Can we begin by exploring who we are and where we were meant to be? The writer of the Book of Hebrews chose to use Psalm 8 to explain what God intended for us. “But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet.” In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.” (Hebrews 2:6-8 NIV)
We were meant to have all God’s creation under us, but today we find ourselves under it all, and subject to its fallenness. This is the truth that we must accept. It is not getting better; we cannot tame it, nor is it even our home. So where is our hope?
It lies in many of God’s words to us, but none better than Chapter 2 of Hebrews. In these verses, we read of a Kingly God who is involved. He is not like the gods of Rome or Greece, who only involved themselves with humanity if there was a threat to them. He is the God who walked with our ancestors in the garden He created for them. He has always loved us, even when we defied Him, and desperately wants a relationship with us.
And He gave us a champion and uses the same language for Him as He did us, “But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor……” (Hebrews 2:9 NIV).
As the writer points out, Jesus is our “pioneer,” our champion, and the end of our story. “In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both those who make people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So, Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.” (Hebrews 2:10-11 NIV).
This truth is mind boggling!
And, finally, what did Jesus conquer for us that changes everything and weakens the power of current sufferings and afflictions? Death! Death! Our pride in our lives can defeat many foes, bring us success, power, and wealth. It can make us famous and falsely give us a sense of security. But there is one enemy we can never defeat, and its finality is a constant reminder of our destiny. Death.
So, we run around, desperately trying to fill the time, grabbing all we get, trying to remain busy and distracted from this truth. But it always stays. Tolstoy once wrote, “Something strange began to happen to me at age 50. I had a wife who loved me, and whom I loved; I had a large estate which, without much effort on my part, increased; my name was respected, I enjoyed physical strength, and yet I could not live because of death. The question, which brought me to the verge of suicide, sought an answer without which one cannot live. Is there any meaning in life that my inevitable death does not destroy? Today or tomorrow, death will come to those I love, and then to me. Soon, not only will I no longer exist, but eventually, no one will exist who will remember anything I have written or done. Why then go on with the effort? What is it all for? What does it all lead to? What difference does it make whether or not I do this thing or that thing or nothing at all? So, I could give no rational meaning to any single action or even to my whole life. But what was so surprising was how we can fail to see this. For a time, it is possible to live intoxicated with life, but as soon as one is sober, it is impossible not to see that life in the face of death is a fraud, and a stupid fraud. How often I have been told, ‘Oh, you cannot understand the meaning of life, so don’t think about it, just live.’ But I no longer can do that.”
We, however, have a Champion, a brother, a King, who has already conquered death and all that goes with it. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14-15 NIV). Jesus blew a hole through the back of death. He entered it and blew it up, and He did it once and for all, so that it no longer has any sting. Then He says to us, “Follow me and I will take you where I have gone, into the place where I am. It may often be bumpy and dark, but your crown awaits at ‘the end of the story’.” With death conquered and destiny secured in and through Jesus, what else matters? Amen.
SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 15:55 (NIV)
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
PRAYER:
Lord, I find it too simple that, right now, at this moment, life has an eery simplicity about it. I am thinking, “This cannot be right. It is much more complicated than this.” And it may be, but right now, Lord, it seems to come down to two words that must be conquered to bring meaning and direction to life. Those two words are Pride and Death. One was conquered by you on the cross, Lord, but I must choose to live in that victory, instead of holding onto a fear that is no longer justified. That one was death. The second word, Pride, is what keeps me holding on to the fear for reasons that I both do and don't understand. You see, Lord, I want to bask in your victory for me and all creation, but I also see working in me my desire to have a part in it, to earn my own victory, and do it my way. Oh, Holy Spirit, work in me to accept Christ’s victory and to take away this foolish pride that wants to bask in the lies of defeat so that I may achieve some false, manufactured victory of which I may boast to only myself. Thank you, Lord, for loving me so much to be my Champion. Amen
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