Iliff and Saltillo United Methodist
March 6, 2005
Fourth Sunday of Lent
"Light Breaking Through Darkness”
II Corinthians 4:3-7
INTRODUCTION: Every Christian you have ever met--including yourself--was once living in darkness with a heart filled with sin and hopelessness.
“But God, who is rich in mercy: loved us so much that even though we were spiritually dead and doomed by our sins, gave us back our lives again when he raised Christ from the dead--only by his undeserved favor have we even been saved and lifted us up from the grave into glory along with Christ--all because of what Christ did.” Ephesians 2:4-5
Today is the fourth Sunday of Lent, and we are again looking ahead to the cross and what Jesus accomplished for us on that cross. When Paul wrote today’s letter to the Corinthians, he could look back to his own life and the time when he was so blind to spiritual things that he thought he was doing God a favor by persecuting the Christians. Then something happened to him. He was stopped in his tracks one day. God dispelled his darkness by illuminating his heart and giving him a knowledge of Christ that he had not learned about in any other way up to that point.
He told them, “I know who has changed my life; and because of that I am not preaching any other gospel but JESUS CHRIST and HIM CRUCIFIED. You can look back on your own life and see how you first began to see the light of the gospel begin to shine into your heart. Maybe it took a long time for it to happen, maybe even years. Or you might have been very young and were receptive almost immediately. You might be sitting here today and still not all that open to the light of the gospel. We wonder why it is that many people still have not made even the first move toward the gospel. Why is the good news hidden or veiled when there is a church on almost every corner? Why do many people not respond?
1. WHY IS THE GOSPEL HIDDEN?--Paul answers this question by saying that “if the gospel be hid from people it is because the god of this world has blinded their minds to spiritual things.” Actually he says the gospel is not really “hidden” because the gospel he preached is an OPEN GOSPEL. Paul wanted to preach it so plain and simple that people could understand it. The idea here was more that it was “veiled” to people. They could see it but it was not CLEAR or EASILY UNDERSTOOD by them. It’s like saying, “Yes, I KNOW , but I DON’T KNOW. It might be that for years you have some kind of understanding about the gospel but it might be wrong. Or it might be just a vague understanding that does not do any good. It might be so unclear that it is not meeting you at your point of need. Think of ways that the gospel may have been veiled to you over the years or that it may STILL be veiled to you where you are just not quite GETTING it. Think of people you know who are still living in spiritual blindness and they have not even started on the journey of faith yet.
STORY: Bill and John needed a break from their high tech computer jobs so they decided to try duck hunting. On the first day they sat in the duck blind all morning. Nothing happened.
Bill said to John, “I just don’t understand it. We’ve been here since dawn. How come we’re not getting any ducks?”
John said, “I keep telling you, I DON’T THINK WE’RE THROWING THE DOG HIGH ENOUGH.”
The ducks were not “hidden” from their view but these city guys didn’t understand much about duck hunting.
Paul said it is not the fault of the gospel we are preaching because we are preaching it as plain as we know how. It’s the “god of this world that has blinded people’s understanding.”
Paul said, “in spite of this, I’m not going to get discouraged because no one is hopeless. I’m not writing anyone off in spite of their lack of understanding or of their resistance to the gospel message. Think about those people in your family who are just not “getting” spiritual truths. Don’t write them off and say, “Oh, they are just not interested. They will never be interested.” Their eyes have been blinded and the truth is veiled from them because Satan has done this to them. Lots of people all around us are in this predicament today. It is not just that people have made a decision not to believe but more because they are not seeing the light of Christ in order to be able to believe.
As Christians, we can continue to present the light of the gospel to people in a plain and simple way. We can continue to pray for people binding and rebuking the blindness that is holding them captive. How do we know that it does any good to pray when it looks as if some people are never going to change?
STORY: There was an engineer at Lockheed who had heard the gospel many many times but showed no openness at all. He was a brilliant engineer but he became very depressed and his wife finally left him and took their children with her. Everything he had was gone. He became a very pathetic person who couldn’t help himself. He said he did not believe anything. Didn’t believe there was a God--didn’t believe in Jesus. Didn’t believe in the Bible. Did not believe that Jesus ever lived. There was no ground for faith in this man at all.
The pastor who was asked to talk with him said, “I’m sorry. There is nothing I can do to help you but I don’t want to abandon you. If you will come here every week, I will do two things for you:
1. I’ll read the Bible to you.
2. I’ll pray for you.
I don’t know what will happen, but if you are willing, I’ll do those two things.
Surprisingly the man said, “OK” The pastor read the scripture and asked, “Does that mean anything to you?” “No,” the man would reply week after week.
8 months went by--”Don’t you see anything, that means something to you?”
“Well, there is one thing. This morning I was thinking about it.” You said Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not my will but thine be done.” That suddenly meant something to me.
The preacher didn’t want to ask what it meant. He just said, “Doug if that meant something to you, pray that over and over again.
What happened? In a couple of weeks something else meant something to him. There is a scripture in Psalms that tells us what happened to Doug.
Psalm 119:130 says, “the entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding...”
Do we give up on people too soon? Do we give up on ourselves too soon? I think we do. In our fast paced age we want everything to happen yesterday. But with spiritual things sometimes it doesn’t happen instantly. Satan works hard to keep people from the gospel by blinding them in many different ways. Sometimes it is difficult for even a slight ray of light to get past their outward blindness. All truth seems to be veiled. Let us continue to pray and to speak to people as the Holy Spirit leads us. Let us not give up.
2. The Light Breaks In--In spite of Satan’s attempt to blind people’s eyes from seeing and their minds from understanding, Jesus’ work on the cross has “disarmed these powers of the enemy.” Because of this good news Jesus can break through all kinds of opposition and penetrate any darkness. His light cannot be extinguished. The darkness of this world and even the darkness of our lives at times cannot overcome the light and Grace of God in Jesus Christ. How do we know this?
In spite of all the crime and violence in our world today and the hardness of people’s hearts, verse 6 tells us that “the God who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness in Genesis 1:3 is the same one who has SHONE IN OUR HEARTS and so we are empowered to carry the light into our spiritually dark world. In the Genesis account God gave A WORD--”Let there be light.” In this verse he performed a PERSONAL ACT--God SHONE in our hearts.
I Peter 2:9 tells us “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of him who CALLED YOU OUT OF DARKNESS INTO HIS WONDERFUL LIGHT.”
There is hope for unbelievers. No matter how proud and stubborn they are, no matter how many masks they wear, the God who said, “let there be light” can reach the heart and give sight to any spiritually blind person. No one knew this better than Paul who spoke of his experience as he was on his way to Damascus about noon time when a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven. The light of Jesus penetrated the deep darkness of Saul of Tarsus and freed him from his blindness. He was sent to the Jews and Gentiles to “open their eyes so they would turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God.” (Acts 26:18).
The way that Paul was able to confront the false teachers and bring the light of truth to darkened minds was to live out the truth and to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. They didn’t have to argue with people about religion or try to trick them into believing. The light of Jesus was able to get through in spite of the veil.
3. We Minister out of Clay Jars--We may think that we are too weak, too powerless, too...to help anyone find the light of Jesus.
Paul says, “No you’re not.” We have this treasure in clay jars that we may point people to Jesus. We are the containers for the treasure. We are not the treasure. The reason the light is contained in clay jars is to show that “the surpassing greatness of the power is from God and not from ourselves.” That presence and light is expressed through ordinary people--clay jars, by means of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This has been God’s way of fulfilling his purpose down through the years. Through Paul--and through us today. All of the people throughout history have been clay jars--nothing spectacular--but God has powerfully moved through them to share the light to a darkened world.
We don’t have to worry about having all the answers. We just need to say, “Lord just fill up my life with your Light--Let the daylight shine. I might be nothing but an ordinary clay jar, but my life is purposeful, fulfilling, and useful. My life is no longer empty and despairing because of Christ. II Corinthians 3:16, 17 says, “Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.”
What does this say to us today:
CONCLUSION:
1. People are blinded to the truth--it’s veiled from them but the good news is that Christ has overpowered the enemy and disarmed him through His work on the cross.
2. Don’t give up on yourselves or on other people. Ephesians 5:8 says “for you were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of Light.”
3. Be a container for His light in spite of all of your weaknesses or flaws. Be willing to hold the treasure and let His light shine out. Let the daylight shine.
This week think about these questions. (1) How did the light first break through to you? (2) Who or what helped you to remove the cobwebs which once veiled your dull mind? (3) What changes have you noticed since you turned to the Lord and to His light?
Shall we pray:
