Confessions of a Church: The Darkness
The Psalm writer wrote: Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law. As we come before a Holy God and hear his word, may we have eyes open to the wonderful and fearful things from his law. May it move us to repent and seek forgiveness, fear disobedience, and live in light of the grace we have received. This is the word of God. It is eternally true and applicable for all of life.
Ecclesiastes 11:7-10 The light is pleasant, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun. Indeed, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all, and let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything that is to come will be futility. Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things. So, remove grief and anger from your heart and put away pain from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting.
Jesus said "In the world you have tribulation" ( John 16:33).
We are told to NOT be surprised by the fiery trial (1 Peter 4:12).
Repeatedly in the wisdom literature found in Scripture we are warned of our collective fate, death (Ecclesiastes 2:14, 15; 3:19; 9: 2,3).
Sickness, persecution, loss, setbacks, betrayals, failures, defeat, abandonment, and ultimately death: all these calamities which come suddenly upon us leave us walking through life as if in a darkness.
Perhaps you are in the prime of your life, with everything seeming to be going your way. You are healthy, have a good job. From an earthly perspective everything is going your way. Take heed lest you fall (1 Cor 10:12).
Maybe you are a young person living under the care of loving parents: no pain, no trouble, no worries. Look to the story of the prodigal son ( Luke 15:11) and be warned: for those that squander their heritage, darkness lay ahead.
You've made wealth your refuge. Money has eased all your earthly burdens. Rest assured that one day it will grow wings and fly away (Proverbs 23:5). What follows is the uncertainty of a dark future.
Indeed, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all, and let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many.
We read of righteous Job, who was struck with a plague and lost his children to disaster. His wife encouraged him to step fully into the darkness rather than to endure any longer: "Curse God and die" she exclaimed. Job's response? "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10)
David was a man acquainted with the darkness. Fought a giant, pursued relentlessly by enemies, stumbled into sin, pierced by the death of his child as a result of his sin. This was the Lord's anointed, intimately aware of the struggles of life which plunge one into darkness. He responded by writing this: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." (Psalm 23:4)
Our Lord Jesus was a "man of sorrows, acquainted with grief." (Isaiah 53:3)
He experienced the deepest, most pervasive, blackest darkness that anyone has ever endured as he hung on the tree having the wrath of His Father poured out upon Him for the sins of His people.
Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.
— Matthew 27:45
Writing on this in his commentary, Matthew Henry states:
"The indignities done to our Lord Jesus, made the heavens astonished, and horribly afraid, and even put them into disorder and confusion; such wickedness as this the sun never saw before, and therefore withdrew, and would not see this. During the three hours that this darkness continued, we do not find that he said one word, but passed this time in a silent retirement into his own soul, which was now in agony, wrestling with the powers of darkness, and taking in the impressions of his Father's displeasure, not against himself, but the sin of man, which he was now making his soul an offering for. Never were there three such hours since the day that God created man upon the earth, never such a dark and awful scene, the crisis of that great affair of man's redemption and salvation."
How do you respond to the darkness? Do you turn to food? Pleasure? Entertainment? When the fiery trial comes, and it seems that God has turned His face away from you, what do you do? Do you curse God and wish for death? Do you plunge yourself into hopeless despair? Do you flee into the refuge of health, wealth, and family?
Friends, the darkness is coming, if not already here. But all is not gloom and doom. As stated earlier, Jesus did say "In the world you have tribulation". He also said "Fear not, I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
You see brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is the "bright morning star" (Revelation 22:16).
He is the Light which has come into the world ( John 3:19). Of Himself He said "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” ( John 8:12)
The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.
— Isaiah 9:2
If your response to the darkness is "why me?", scripture gives the Christian a definitive answer: "For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;" (1 Peter 2:21-23)
When the darkness comes, and it will, how should you, as a Christian, respond?
O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
If you are able, please kneel as we confess our sins to our God Who sent His Son to save to the uttermost.
O LORD,
We marvel that thou shouldst become incarnate,
be crucified, dead, and buried.
The tomb calls forth our adoring wonder,
for it is empty and thou art risen;
the four-fold gospel attests it,
the living witnesses prove it,
Our heart’s experience knows it.
Give us to die with thee that we may rise to new life,
for we wish to be as dead and buried
to sin, to selfishness, to the world;
that we might not hear the voice of the charmer,
and might be delivered from his lusts.
O Lord, there is much ill about us — crucify it,
much flesh within us — mortify it.
Purge us from selfishness,
the fear of man, the love of approbation,
the shame of being thought old-fashioned,
the desire to be cultivated or modern.
Let us reckon our old lives dead
because of crucifixion,
and never feed it as a living thing.
Grant us to stand with our dying Saviour,
to be content to be rejected,
to be willing to take up unpopular truths,
and to hold fast despised teachings until death.
Help us to be resolute and Christ-contained.
Never let us wander from the path of obedience
to thy will.
Strengthen us for the battles ahead.
Give us courage for all the trials,
and grace for all the joys.
Help us to be holy, happy people,
free from every wrong desire,
from everything contrary to thy mind.
Grant us more and more of the resurrection life:
may it rule us,
may we walk in its power,
and be strengthened through its influence.
(Prayer adapted from the Valley of Vision, titled "Crucifixion and resurrection")
In Jesus's name we pray, amen.
Please stand and listen to the comforting assurance of the grace of God, promised in the gospel to his church:
From Psalm 91 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!” For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper And from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark. You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day; Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. A thousand may fall at your side And ten thousand at your right hand, But it shall not approach you. You will only look on with your eyes And see the recompense of the wicked. For you have made the Lord, my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent.
To all those who thus repent and seek Jesus Christ for their salvation, your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lift up your hearts!