The Lord’s Day
February 2, 2003
Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord
with gladness, come before His presence with thanksgiving; know that the Lord is
God. It is He who has made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the
sheep of His pasture.” Let us worship Him.
O Lord, almighty King, triune God, You are the sovereign
and everlasting God who governs all things in heaven and earth. You both hide
and reveal, and You can change our darkness to light. Mercifully meet with us
this day. Speak to us by Your word. Quicken us by Your Spirit, receive the
prayers and praises and worship of Your people. Grant us Your peace all the days
of our lives through Jesus Christ our Lord. O heavenly Father, You are able to
do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power
that works within us, Your power, the power of Your Spirit. So to You be the
glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. For
we offer these things and all our prayers in Jesus name. Amen.
Acts
26:17
From Darkness to Light
Will You please turn in your Bibles to the book of
Acts, chapter 26, and as you’re turning there I want to say how wonderful it’s
been to be in Jackson, Mississippi for the last several days to experience first
hand southern hospitality. It really is true. People are friendlier in this part
of the country than they are in Philadelphia, that’s for sure. It’s been great
to be with you and particularly to be at a church that we admire so much, and so
grateful for the ministry that your senior pastor exercises, not just here at
this church, but the leadership he provides to our denomination and also to
other churches around our country outside our denomination. We continue to look
to you for encouragement and inspiration, your commitment to the word of God,
and to glorifying God in your worship the way we have done this morning, and to
taking the good news about Jesus Christ to the ends of the world. That’s
something we want to keep in mind as we turn to the Scriptures in acts, chapter
26, beginning actually at verse 16. This is the word of God. The Lord Jesus is
saying to Paul, who at this point was still know as Saul,
“Rise and stand upon your feet; for I have appeared to You
for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant in witness to the things in which
you have seen me, and to those in which I will appear to you; delivering you
from your people and from the gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their
eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan
to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who
are sanctified by faith in Me.”
And may God the Holy Spirit give us His illumination, as
we hear, not only the reading but also the preaching of God’s word.
On August 1 in the year 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his
crew set sail from London aboard the ship Endurance. They were bound for
Antarctica where the famous explorer hoped to traverse the continent on foot.
Shackleton never made that trek, because before the Endurance could reach
land the ship became hopelessly lodged in the polar ice cap. And from this point
on, the goal of the captain and crew became simple survival. Shackleton and his
crew faced many hardships in the months that followed; freezing temperatures,
near starvation. But of all the frozen terrors they faced, none was more
disheartening than the darkness of the long polar night. The winter began to set
in, the light began to fade, and the ship’s crew grew very uneasy. And then, in
early May, the sun vanished altogether not to be seen again until the end of
July. In his comments on this experience, Shackleton’s biographer wrote, “In all
the world there is no desolation more complete than the polar night. It was a
return to the ice age. No warmth, no life, no movement. Only those who have
experienced it can fully appreciate what it means to be without the sun day
after day and week after week. Few men unaccustomed to it can fight off its
effects altogether; and it has some driven some men mad.”
Now as maddening as it was to be on board the
Endurance, I want to speak to you this morning from the Scriptures about a
deeper darkness, that leads to a much greater despair, and that is the spiritual
darkness of living in the world without Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the light
of the world, and so anyone who does not have a personal saving relationship
with Him is, as the Scripture says, walking in darkness. And it was this kind of
darkness that Jesus Himself had in mind when he said to Paul, as we have heard
in the words that have been chosen as the theme of this world’s missions
conference, “I am sending you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to
light.”
Jesus spoke these words to Paul as he was on his way
to Damascus. And here in Acts chapter 26, Paul is reflecting on what happened
that day, and he’s explaining what happened to him the day that God changed his
life forever. And I suppose that many of you know the story. That Paul was in
such spiritual darkness that he thought it was his religious duty to attack
anyone who believed in Jesus Christ. He really thought that killing Christians
was a way of doing God a favor. And that’s why he was on his way to the city of
Damascus to persecute the church. But if you know the story, you know that Jesus
met Paul on the way; that he appeared, and you can see this if you look back at
verse l3, he appeared to Paul blazing like a light from heaven, brighter than
the sun. And all of a sudden, in that moment, Paul found the light, the glorious
light, the dazzling light of the risen Son of God. And from that moment on, from
that moment that he first came to Christ, Paul was called to be a light bearer.
That is to say, a missionary. And Jesus said to him, “Get up. Stand on your
feet. I’m sending you to turn people from darkness to light.”
You see, Jesus wanted to do the same thing for other
people that he had done in the life of Paul. He wanted to bring them out of the
darkness into the light, and he wanted Paul to help do that. This was his
mission, to open people’s eyes so that they could see Jesus. Now as we think
about that mission we need to understand that it’s based on the assumption that
until people come to Christ, they are still in the dark.
What do we mean by “the dark?” What is Jesus talking
about here? What kind of darkness is He speaking about? Well, obviously it’s a
spiritual darkness, not a literal darkness. Jesus is talking about that heart of
darkness that blackens the soul so that people cannot see the truth about God.
And it is also a satanic darkness. Notice the two
parallel phrases at the beginning of verse 18. Here’s Paul’s mission: It’s to
turn people from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. You can
see the connection between those two phrases. Satan lines up with the darkness,
and God lines up with the light; and so Jesus is talking about the kind of
spiritual darkness that ultimately comes from the power of Satan. Satan’s always
trying to keep us in the dark. He’s trying to keep us from reading the word of
God; trying to keep us from praying to God; trying to keep us away from church
and from spiritual things. He’s trying to keep us from asking the really good
spiritual questions that ought to lead to the right scriptural answers.
And this darkness is also a sinful darkness. Jesus
goes on to say that when people turn to the light their sins are forgiven. Which
implies that before they come into the light their sins are not forgiven. The
Bible often speaks of sin in terms of darkness. It says that without Christ we
are darkened in our understanding and separated from the life of God. It also
says that our foolish hearts are darkened. And so sin is darkening the mind and
the heart. It’s keeping us from knowing God, and loving God. Like some kind of
infectious mold, or like an insect under a rock, or like a midnight prowler, sin
loves to hide in the darkness. It lurks in the shadows. And because we ourselves
have a sinful nature, that is where we like to hide. Think of the words of Jesus
when he says, “Light has come into the world, but men love darkness instead of
light.” And why did they love the darkness? “because,” He says, “their deeds
were evil.” So often sin is committed in the dark and gloomy places where no one
else can see, and the darkest place of all is the human heart, which shuns the
light so that it can conceal its sin.
The reason all of this that we see in the Scriptures
about the darkness is relevant for us this morning is that people are still
living in that kind of darkness today. We need to understand that the apostle
Paul had a special calling and a special mission to reach the Gentiles with the
gospel. But we also need to understand that we too have been given the same
basic mission. God has sent us out into the world to spread the good news about
Jesus Christ. And so it is said of us, as it is said of Paul, that we have been
sent to open people’s eyes and turn them from darkness to light.
In order to sense the urgency of that light-bearing
mission today, I just want to see if I can help you feel the power of the
present darkness in the world today. Consider, for example, the darkness of
Islam. In the world today there are one billion people whose hearts are darkened
by the teachings of Mohammed. They have no assurance of salvation. Only a sort
of desperate hope that if they do everything right, maybe Allah will forgive
them. But there is no promise of mercy for them. And the result, as you surely
know, is a dark religion, abusive of women, terrorizing the free nations of the
world.
Or consider the kind of darkness we see in mainland
China where Communist atheism is driving the church underground, and every year
claims the lives of millions of babies through infanticide.
Or consider the darkness descending in Pakistan where
Christian women have been raped and burned, and where Muslim clerics only just a
month ago were calling for the death of all Christians.
Consider the darkness in India where Hindus have
burned Christians alive, and Indonesia where Muslims have attacked entire
villages of Christians.
Or consider simply the vast numbers of people who
have never heard the gospel. It is estimated that as many as three billion
people have never had the gospel presented to them in any form. And there are
still perhaps ten thousand unreached people groups in the world, cultural
communities in which there is no significant Christian presence. No church to
bear the gospel to others. And all of these people are living in the darkness.
They are under the power of Satan. Their hearts are darkened by sin.
And I suppose it’s very easy for us to sit in a
bright church like this one on a Sunday morning, even when we’re having a
missions conference, and to forget the great darkness enshrouding the world in
sin. I was reading only this week that there are now almost a billion people in
the world who do not consider themselves religious at all. That is to say they
are living in such darkness that they don’t even know there’s a God.
And then consider all of the spiritual darkness here
in the United States; the bloody violence, the raunchy sexuality on television.
Consider the precious lives squandered every day through abortion. The
godlessness in so many ways, not entirely but in so many ways, of the media and
the educational system.
Or consider this. Consider all of the ordinary middle
class people living in ordinary middle class homes, working in ordinary middle
class jobs, raising ordinary middle class families who do not really understand
what life is all about because they don’t have a personal relationship with
Jesus Christ. Consider, I am saying, the people that you know. Some of your own
family perhaps. Certainly some of your friends and neighbors. Consider the
darkness they are living in because unless they have a saving relationship with
Jesus Christ, then no matter how nice they are, or how well they dress, or how
much they’re making, they are living in spiritual darkness. And when you begin
to speak to them about spiritual things you find they really can’t understand
the Bible. They’re not interested in talking about Jesus. They don’t even know
that the reason they’re here is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And in the
end, unless they receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, their lives will end
in darkness.
I was struck this week as I had the privilege to
spend time with your ministers in study and prayer, to hear the quotation that
Reverend Thomas read for us from Bertrand Russell, who was in some ways a
brilliant man, and yet dedicated his life to showing why he wasn’t a Christian,
and giving the philosophical arguments against Christianity. As he thought about
the end of his life, he reached this conclusion, and you see this is what it’s
like to be without Jesus: “There is darkness without. And when I die,” he said,
“There will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only
triviality for a moment and then nothing.” Except that Bertrand Russell wasn’t
quite right about the end of that because it’s not nothing after death. No, the
Bible says that unless we receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we go to a
place of judgment that the Bible describes as utter darkness. A place of
distress. I’m reading from Isaiah, chapter 8, “and darkness and gloom, a place
where sinners are separated forever from the light of God’s glory and grace.”
And you begin to feel something of the spiritual darkness in the world and in
the heart without Jesus. I was trying to think of what I could compare it to.
Maybe it’s like this. It’s like being in a pit at the bottom of a mine,
blindfolded, and then stuffed into a black sack, and then put into a trunk, and
then with the lid closed. That’s how black it is spiritually to be without
Jesus. And you know people right here in Jackson, Mississippi, and all over the
world are living under the shadow of Satan, and unless someone shows them the
light, they will simply be swallowed up in the black hole of their sin.
And you see, that’s why we need a world missions
conference. A world missions conference where we are thinking about the great
light that God has sent into the world that is a life changing light. The Bible
says that we are called, every one of us, to shine for Jesus so that people,
this is 1 Peter, chapter 2, verse 9, “will come out of darkness and into his
wonderful light.” And here in Acts chapter 26 we get a description of what it
means to come into that light. What kind of light is it? Well it is, of course,
a divine light. It is a light that comes shining from God. And if darkness
represents the power of Satan, then light obviously represents the presence of
God. And to come into that light is to know the truth. It’s to understand that
the Bible is the very word of God. And when you come into the light, when you
read the Bible, now it’s like God is speaking directly to you. To come into the
light is to know God’s Son. The Bible says that God has made His light shine in
our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Christ. So when you come into the light, You can see Jesus, and you know who
He is. You know that He’s the Son of God and the Savior of the world, and you
have a relationship with Him like a friend with a friend.
And furthermore, to come into the light is to know
God’s will. So often people want to know what they’re supposed to do in life,
and Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk
in darkness, but will have the light of life.” And so when you come to Jesus in
so many ways you know where God wants you to walk in the world.
And then there is this. This divine light is also a
merciful light. Notice again why Jesus wanted to turn people from darkness to
light. It was for this reason: so that they could receive forgiveness for their
sins. He said to Paul, “I am sending you to turn them from darkness to light so
that they may receive forgiveness of sins.” You see, as long as you walk in
darkness you’re under the black guilt of your sin. Without Christ there’s no
forgiveness for sin, there’s no mercy, there’s no pardon, but when you come to
Jesus and you trust in His suffering and saving work on the cross, His payment
for sin through the offering of His blood and life, then you are completely
forgiven. The Bible says that God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves in whom we have the
forgiveness of sins. And that’s what it means to come into the light. It’s to
receive mercy from God.
And then beyond that it’s to receive from Him a new
spiritual light that enables us to walk in holiness. It’s a holy light. Jesus
also said to Paul, “I am sending you so that they may be sanctified by faith in
Me.” So to be sanctified is simply to be made holy. It is to be spiritually
transformed so that we become more and more like Jesus Christ. And that’s what
happens when we come into God’s light. It’s not just that our debt has been paid
and that our sins are forgiven, it’s that God is filling us with His radiant
spirit, so that we come more and more to have the life of God living in us. The
Scripture says, Ephesians, chapter 5. “You were once darkness, but now you are
light in the Lord.” And it’s so wonderful to come into that light it’s like the
sunrise dancing on the water after a black night. It’s like diamonds on black
velvet. It’s like the lantern that leads you out of the black cave. It’s a light
that dispels the darkness and makes everything bright and all of this light
comes from Jesus, the light of the world.
And so if you want to come into that light, if you
want to receive the knowledge of God and have the forgiveness of sins, all you
have to do is come to Jesus. Or maybe if you really admitted it, you’d have to
agree that you’ve been stumbling around in a kind of spiritual darkness, not
sure which way to turn. Or maybe you’ve been trying to study spiritual things,
maybe even reading the Bible, and yet it hasn’t quite become clear to you. You
don’t really understand it. Or maybe you are so weighed down with shame for what
you’ve done that it’s like there’s a dark stain on your soul. Or maybe you’re in
a kind of black despair because of all your troubles. And you see, Jesus is
inviting you, this morning, through the words of the Scripture, and through the
words of this sermon to come to Him, and to come into the light. You don’t have
to grope around in the spiritual darkness. You don’t have to feel condemned for
your sin, or give into despair. All you need to do is ask Jesus to be your
Savior and your Lord. And you just say, “Jesus, I believe that You died on the
cross for my sins; that You were raised from the dead to give eternal life; and
I want You to be the light of my life.”
Maybe the time has really come for you to do that.
You’ve been thinking about Jesus, but you haven’t made that commitment yet. And
as I thought about that, I reflected on an experience I’ve had this week as I’ve
been staying here in Jackson. I have a room with wooden shutters. And at night
I close all the shutters, and that means that it’s dark in the morning, even
when the sun comes up. You can barely see just a little bit of light coming in
through the shutters. Well, there comes a time in the day when it’s time to
leave the darkness, to open the shutters, to let in the light. And if it’s time
for you to do that, then you should open your heart to Jesus this morning.
Now once you’ve done that, once you’ve come into the
light, God has a job for you to do. And that is to help other people come into
the light. Because really, the mission Jesus gave to Paul is the same mission he
gives to us. He says, “I am sending you to turn them from darkness to light.”
And here we are confronted with what I think we have to agree is an amazing
truth about the Christian light. That Jesus has called us, of all people, to be
His light in the world. You know, Jesus said to His disciples, “While I am in
the world, I am the light of the world.” That’s John, chapter 9, verse 5. “While
I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
But of course in one sense Jesus is no longer in the
world. He’s returned to heaven, and He’s waiting there to be revealed at the
last day in all of his glory. But in the meantime, He has left His light to keep
the world from being plunged back into darkness. And we’re the light. The same
Jesus that said that He was the light also said, and this is Matthew, chapter 5,
“You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before men so that they
may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
One commentator on this wrote about this theme, “That
the world has no other light than the light which we shed abroad by holding
aloft the lamp of the word, and lifting the Lord Jesus Christ and letting Him
shine through us.” And that means that if people who are walking in darkness are
going to come into the light, it will be because they have seen the light
shining in us.
This morning as we think about our own part in God’s
great work in the world, we should see by way of encouragement that for all of
the darkness that still needs to be dispelled, there are so many places where
the light of Jesus is shining. Now I think I could prove that by giving you some
of the statistics. I could tell you, for example, about 50% church growth in
North Africa. Or the spread of the gospel in Korea; or the ongoing work of
church planting in China. I could tell you about places where more Muslims have
come to Christ in the last 20 years than in the entire last millennium. I could
tell you, as I read this week, that 70,000 people are becoming Bible believing
Christians every day, with more than 3,000 new churches being started around the
world every week.
Now that’s a lot of light, a lot of shining. But when
I think of the light shining in the darkness, I tend to think of the people I
know, and the things that they are doing for Jesus. I think of the Presbyterian
church in downtown Istanbul, that is baptizing converts from Islam, and has now
grown to several hundred believers worshiping in that great city, and now with a
strategic plan for sending out church planters all over Turkey, one of the most
godless nations on earth. I think of friends who served as missionaries in
Colombia, laboring to spread the light in a very dark place among the Inca
tribesmen, and all of their efforts seem to be in vain. For more than 20 years
missionaries had been going to this tribe, and not a single person had come to
Christ. But this year the missionaries received a letter from a member of the
tribe who said in effect, “I’ve never met you, but I heard that you came here to
spread the gospel and to spread the light, and it didn’t seem like it made any
difference, but I want to tell you that even those seemingly futile efforts were
part of the way that God was preparing our people to come to Him in faith. And
now the gospel has come to our tribe again, and there are 200 converts, and we
have established a church.” You see, the light was shining in a dark place. I
think of a man and his wife who disappear into the jungle for months at a time,
secretly going around to church planters and to their wives, and teaching them
and instructing them so that they can take the gospel back to their own tribes,
in such a dangerous place that we can’t even really say anything about the work
of this man to our congregation. And yet he is shining with the light of Jesus
in a dark place. I think of the Christian work among the prostitutes of Ghana.
The missions pastor of our church just came back from a trip there and showed us
the pictures. And showed us what was happening there. These women living in
darkness and degradation, and yet being invited to come into a Christian program
where they receive job training, and where they hear the gospel, and where they
are trained in spiritual things. And when they come to the end of their
training, these women wear long bright robes that say, in effect, “I have come
out of the darkness, and I am in the light of Jesus.” Or I think of all of the
wonderful churches in our own country, churches like this one for example, that
shine with the light of Jesus. Churches where the gospel is preached; where
members invite their friends to church; where children are discipled in the
faith; and where deeds of mercy are done in the name of Jesus Christ. And I
think especially of the people I know who have come into the light of Jesus in
recent weeks and months. I think of the brilliant chemist whose wife and friends
prayed for him for more than a decade and finally just before Christmas, he came
to Christ. I think of the kindergartner who was getting ready for the Christmas
program at school, and as he walked down the steps of the family home, he
stopped on the staircase, and he knelt down and he prayed to receive Jesus
Christ as his Savior. Or I think, for example, of the grandmother who was in a
coma, and her family belonged to our church, and they had prayed for this woman
for years and years and years. She was a lifelong agnostic, and it seemed like
she was about to die. Suddenly she opened her eyes. The first words out of her
mouth were these, “I have seen Jesus, and he has forgiven me for everything I
have ever done.” I think of the young professional woman who was in my office
this week. She said, as we talked about spiritual things, and about the gospel,
and about putting your whole confidence in Jesus Christ, she said, “I’m not
there yet. But I think I want to be.” You see, if I’m right, then the light is
beginning to dawn for her as it does for everyone who comes to Christ in faith.
And you see, Jesus is still shining today. He’s the light of the world. His
light cannot be hidden, and wherever people are shining for Him, that light will
spread.
And what you need to understand this morning is that
it is your job to spread that light. You know, so often when people come to a
world missions conference like this one, they think it’s for someone else. They
think of missions as a kind of specialty, and the missions conference says
something for people that are interested in that sort of thing. Listen, this
conference isn’t for anyone else. It’s for you. Because if you believe in Jesus
Christ then your mission is to turn people from darkness to light. And missions
isn’t something that someone else does somewhere else; it’s what God has sent
you to do wherever you are. What the world needs is for ordinary men and women,
and ordinary boys and girls, to shine with the light of Jesus. That means
shining for Jesus right where you are. It means making a personal commitment to
support the worldwide work of the gospel through prayer and through giving. And
Dr. Duncan was right that I wanted to challenge you in this area. I saw the
stewardship brochure. It seemed to me that if you were going to make your goal
$900,000, you might as well make it a round million. What I didn’t tell them was
that I had an ulterior motive for doing that, because I had begun to tell our
missions commission that they ought to set our missions budget at a million
dollars. And we’re not quite there yet, but it you made a commitment to do that,
I’d be able to go back to our church and say, “You know, down in Jackson,
Mississippi, they’re trying to raise a million dollars for missions.”
Now for some of us it will mean not just sharing the
gospel where we are right now, and praying for the work of the gospel, and
giving sacrificially to the work of the gospel, but for some of us surely it
will mean that God is calling us, either now or in the future, to go to some
other part of the world. Somewhere dark, certainly. Somewhere dangerous,
possibly. Because that is where Jesus wants to spread his light.
And so let me ask you this question. Are you shining
for Jesus so brightly that that light would have the capacity for God to use it
to turn other people from darkness to light. Not long ago I received what I
thought was a very significant letter from Tom and Cynthia Hale, missionaries
who spent a lifetime serving the Lord in medicine. The Hale’s letter which came
with this title, “Disciples needed for the 21st century” was really
a cry from the heart. I want to read you part of the letter. This is what they
say, “Our major concern relates to the level of discipleship we have observed
during our travels. We fear it is too shallow. The worldwide evangelical church
has experienced unprecedented growth, and in terms of the plain numbers coming
to Christ, nothing like it has been seen before. But there are troubling signs
that many of these believers are following Christ primarily for what they can
receive rather than for what they can give. We have a sense that some rapidly
growing churches are placing more emphasis on drawing people in than on sending
people out. They have been placing more emphasis on the blessings of following
Christ than on the cost. The hard teachings are downplayed as if there’s a fear
of scaring people away.” But, they go on to write, “the main work of the church
is to prepare those who are being drawn in to then be thrust out into the world
as witnesses. And the question is often asked, ‘how can we recruit more people
to do this?’ and the answer we believe is for churches to place greater emphasis
on challenging their members to deny self, to forsake all, and to follow Christ
with no conditions or limitations.”
Are you doing that? Are you following Christ with no
conditions, with no limitations? You know, there are so many Christians today, I
think especially here in America, who try to squeeze Christ in around the
corners of their lives. They are willing to call themselves Christians, they’re
willing to come to church, they may even be willing to be involved in some kind
of ministry as along as it fits in with the rest of their lives. They just don’t
want Christianity to get in the way of their entertainment or their career, or
their hobbies, or all of the things that they have planned to do with their time
and their money. But understand that as long as we take that kind of attitude
towards Christ and towards the Christian faith, that people are going to stay in
the dark. We’re not called to flicker for Jesus, but to shine for Jesus with a
blazing passion.
And so let me ask you again, and challenge yourself
in your own heart in the presence of God, and with the witness of His Holy
Spirit, “Are You shining for Jesus brightly enough to turn people from darkness
to light?” Some of you may have heard, just a month ago, about the tragic murder
of three Southern Baptist missionaries in the Middle East, a doctor, and an
administrator, and a purchasing manager, who were gunned down in a Christian
hospital in Yemen. All of them knew the risks involved in serving God in such a
dangerous part of the world. And yet they freely gave their lives away for the
sake of the gospel. What do you suppose it was that motivated them to serve God
in that way? Here’s how a leader from their mission board explained it. He said,
“It’s important to do what you can, when you can, because timing is not in our
hands but God’s. We cannot decide the place and time of our deaths. But we can
decide the place and time of our service. They gave their lives as they could,
when they could, so the grace of God would be poured out on those people.”
But many Christians don’t do that. Many of us want to
wait for a safer day, for a more convenient time. “They did not waste their
lives,” the man from that missionary board said, “but” listen to this, “shined a
light into the darkness.” You see, those missionaries understood what their
mission was. They knew that people were living in darkness, that they needed to
come into the light, and they knew it was their responsibility to shine with the
light of Jesus in that dark place.
Now do you know what your mission is, the mission
that Jesus Himself has given to you, as a church, as an individual believer in
Jesus Christ? People are living in darkness. People all around this city, all
over the world, including people that you know. They need to see the light. And
what Jesus has said is, “I am sending you to turn them from darkness into
light.”
Our Father in heaven, we pray for a pouring out of
Your Spirit upon us, for a filling of us with the light of Your presence, so
that we would shine brightly for Jesus. Father, we pray that You would help us
by Your grace to turn aside from all of the dark things that are clouding our
witness for You. And Father, we pray that You would use us to turn others from
darkness to light. It’s our prayer for them, Lord, that men and women and
children around us, around this city and around the world would come into the
light of Jesus, and that You would find us faithful in doing our part to help
bring them to the light. And we pray in the name of He who is the light, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
******************
A Guide to the Morning
Service
The Themes of the Service
This Lord’s Day begins our annual Missions Conference. Note the theme and focus
of the conference, and see how it is reflected in the various elements of the
services this week and next.
The Reading of Scripture
Paul told Timothy “give attention to the public reading of Scripture” (1 Timothy
4:13) and so, at virtually every morning service, a minister reads a substantial
section of Scripture. In the reading of God’s word, He speaks most directly to
His people. We are reading through the Book of Acts at present. The passage we
will read this morning provides essential substance for the Gospel proclamation
we announce when we do the work of missions.
The Guest Preacher
We are delighted to have in our midst, opening our 2003 Missions Conference,
Dr. Philip G. Ryken. Phil is a dear friend and is the successor to the great
James Montgomery Boice and Senior Minister of Tenth Presbyterian Church in
Philadelphia, where he has served since 1995. He received his BA from Wheaton
College (IL), his MDiv from Westminster Theological Seminary (PA), and his DPhil
from the University of Oxford (UK). He is the author and editor of numerous
books, serves on the board of Wheaton College and with me on the Council of the
Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. He and his wife, Lisa, are parents to four
children.
The
Sermon
Today, we pause in our morning series on the Apostles’ Creed to reflect on the
text chosen by our Missions Conference Committee as the theme passage for this
year’s conference: Acts 26:17. In preparation for the study of this passage, you
may want to read John 1:1-14 prior to the service.
The Psalm and Hymns
All of our psalms, hymns, and songs for the next two weeks will feature
missionary themes.
Come, Thou Almighty King
We open our worship today with a trinitarian hymn of praise. The doctrine of the
Trinity is the centerpiece of Christian theology, and a defining doctrine of
orthodoxy. “It is only when we contemplate this Trinity that we know who and
what God is,” said the Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck
Jesus Shall Reign
(based on Psalm 72)
Another of Isaac Watt’s famous paraphrases. This hymn is a bold declaration that
one day “every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.” We
sing it in response to the reading of Scripture this morning, appropriately.
O
Zion, Haste, Your Mission High Fulfilling
This hymn’s author composed it, while caring for one of her children who was
sick with typhoid fever! Thomson was born in London and immigrated to the US
(Philadelphia, PA) in the late nineteenth century.
Out of My Bondage, Sorrow, and Night
The author was a congregational minister and attended Phillips Exeter Academy,
the University of Vermont, and the Andover Theological Seminary. He was pastor
of the Summer Street Congregational Church in Worcester, Massachusetts, for over
30 years. The hymn picks up the theme of darkness and light in Acts 26:17.
The Faith Promise Commitment
For many years now, the Session of our church has approved a special way of
giving to missions called a “Faith Promise.” This giving, specifically for
missions, is promoted each year at Missions Conference time. The “Faith Promise”
is an ongoing contribution that goes wholly, only, and directly to home and
world missions. We will make our commitments next Lord’s Day.
This
guide to worship is written by the minister and provided to the congregation and
our visitors in order (1) to assist them in their worship by explaining why we
do what we do in worship and (2) to provide them background on the various
elements of the service.