Between D-Day and V-Day

Tuesday 6th June 1944 : D-Day, the Allied invasion of Europe - it was a decisive invasion of enemy territory.It was D-Day, but it was not V-Day. The day of final victory, V-Day, was still to come V-Day did not come until 1945.

 * D-Day and V-Day - What does this teach us concerning the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? D-Day is behind us. We are pressing on now to V-Day.

Through his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ has made the decisive invasion into enemy territory.

When Christ returns, his victory will be complete. His victory will be revealed in all its fullness.

D-Day and V-Day: What lies behind these days? Warfare - There is a battle to be fought and a victory to be won.

Christ's resurrection and Christ's return: What lies behind these two great events? Warfare - We must fight the good fight, the fight of faith. We must press on to victory.

 - Between D-Day and V-Day, there is warfare.

 - Between Christ's resurrection and his return, there is warfare.

 - Between our personal decision and our call to glory, there is warfare.

 * Warfare - "long periods of intense boredom, punctuated by short periods of intense fright" (Churchill).

In our Christian warfare, the fight of faith, there are many ordinary days, days which are neither 'high' -the mountaintop experience - nor 'low' - the valley of despair. They are simply days of the hard slog, days when we must keep on going in the face of complacency, the feeling that it doesn't really matter all that much whether or not we go on with Jesus Christ. there are, of course, high times and low times, times when we seem to go from strength to strength, and times when we must hold on to faith or be overwhelmed.

High times, low times, but, more often than not, ordinary days, days when it would be so easy to take our eyes off Jesus, days when everything else seems so interesting, and Jesus seems so ordinary that we take him for granted.

The Christian warfare is never easy, but there is the promise of victory.

Here is a promise from the Lord: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when yo walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you" (Isaiah 43:2).

The waters bring the threat of drowning. The fire brings the threat of being burned out.

In the water, you must keep on swimming. Keep on swimming or start sinking. In the Christian life, we must keep on believing. We must keep on trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep the fire burning - the fire of the Holy Spirit, or be burned out by the fiery darts of the evil one.

 * Warfare and victory - They belong together. We are in the midst of warfare, but we must not lose sight of the victory. In 1 Peter 1:6-7, we see both warfare and victory.

"In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed."

We have to suffer various trials, but look at the final outcome - "praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

"For a little while you may have to suffer various trials." What does this mean? - "for a little while". 

In the Christian life, there are, for each of us, times of particularly difficult testing. I believe that there is a more general meaning here. "For a little while" refers to the whole course of our Christian life. Our "little while2, here on earth, is contrasted with the "praise and glory and honour of eternal life."

How are we tested? Every time is a testing time.

 - In our 'highs', we are tempted to become overconfident in ourselves and take our eyes off Jesus.

 - In our 'lows', we are tempted to give up in despair.

 - In our many ordinary days, we are tempted to think that there is nothing much at stake, that it doesn't really matter whether we keep on going or give up on following on Jesus.

 * In our times of testing, i.e. at all times, we must keep our eyes on the victory. Look beyond the battle to the victory. Do you feel like David facing Goliath? You feel so small and weak. The opposition seems so great and powerful. But, that is only part of the story. There is something else - David had the Lord on his side. Goliath was full of confidence. He was the odds-on favourite. So it seemed, but there was another factor, a hidden factor, which Goliath could not understand - "the battle is the Lord's" (1 Samuel 17:47).

What does God say to us concerning the Christian life? - "Stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you ... Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you" (2 Chronicles 20:17).

 * The battle is the Lord's, and the victory is the Lord's.

How does the Lord's victory become our victory? 

  (a) Don't give up when the going gets tough - "struck down but not destroyed", "we may be knocked down, but we are never knocked out" (J B Phillips) (2 Corinthians 4:9).

  (b) Keep right on to the end of the road. Keep on playing until the final whistle blows. 

When I was a boy, I played in a football match, in which we were losing 2-0 with 5 or 10 minutes to go. we kept on going. we won 3-2.

  (c) God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:56).  

D-Day has already taken place - the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. V- Day is still to come.

 - What are we to do between D-Day and V-Day?

"Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:58).

 - What can we look forward to? - V-Day: "The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down" (Revelation 12:9-10).