SERIES
Advent: Into His Marvelous Light
2016-12-04T11:00:00-06:00
13:1 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. 6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7 He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright (c)2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. http://www.esv.org
In Isaiah 45:7, God says, “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.” In this passage and in many other passages of the Bible, God reveals that He is sovereign over both the brightness of what is good and pleasing, and over the darkness of what is evil and difficult. This does not mean that God is somehow morally responsible for evil, or that He delights in it. Rather, it means that nothing in all creation happens apart from His holy will. While experiences of darkness and calamity may feel chaotic and destructive, God’s sovereignty means they are actually purposeful and redemptive.
Some Christians feel that the reality of God’s sovereignty should somehow reduce or eliminate our grief when we experience seasons of darkness or calamity. But that is not a biblical notion, and is actually contrary to how God calls us to respond personally and emotionally. The video above, which Rev. Davis mentioned in the sermon, clarifies this in a very helpful way in the context of the loss of a loved one.
God’s Word gives perspective on darkness in all kinds of ways, including the relationship between darkness and the Incarnation. The Gospel of John begins with a beautiful and powerful announcement about who Jesus is, and what His birth accomplished. Using the metaphor of light and darkness, John says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:4-5).” While God has allowed darkness into this world and into our lives, He has also allowed His Son to come and defeat this darkness. And in God’s profound wisdom and beauty, the Son’s defeat of darkness came by experiencing the curse of darkness on the cross. As a result, we can rejoice in the beautiful promise we heard sung on Sunday, “There is no night that can steal the promises His coming brings to us.”