Piercing the Darkness - Our Hope: How God Works in History, Part 1

Have you lost hope? Are you discouraged? Do you feel like the whole world is spiraling out of control? Here's what I want you to know. There is great hope, but you have to know where to look for it.

That's today. Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. In just a minute, we'll kick off his latest series, Piercing the Darkness. For the next handful of programs, Chip will take a step back and study the impact of Jesus' earthly ministry. Join us as we look at the remarkable way Jesus broke through the dark, sinful, hopeless world he lived in with truth and grace, and how we can apply what he taught to our lives now.

Well, there's a lot to get to, so here's Chip to kick off this series with his message, Our Hope, How God Works in History. How do we pierce the darkness? We pierce it in our personal lives and in our homes and neighborhoods and this city and beyond. And so we're not going to figure out who to blame about the darkness.

We're not going to complain about the darkness. We're going to ask God to do something in us and then through us where we actually pierce it. And so what I'm going to talk about today is our hope.

And part of piercing the darkness is getting perspective. It's pretty easy to feel like things are really, really, really dark and there's maybe not a lot of hope when you look at circumstances. In fact, let me ask you a few questions. Today, sitting here, how hopeful are you about the future of America, about the current state of the family? How hopeful are you about the economy? How hopeful are you about things getting resolved in the Middle East? I mean, honestly, how hopeful is it?

Like, yeah, I think this is going to work out okay. How hopeful are you about the threats of China or Russia? How hopeful are you about the next generation and the things that we see right now? I don't know about you, but those things make me feel like, wow, Lord, where's the hope?

What are you going to do about it? How does it all work? And so I've given you some notes.

I want you to pull them out if you will. And historically, I have an operating system. And by an operating system, these are premises sort of everyone goes into every situation in life with here's some basic presuppositions that you believe. And the church for over 2,000 years have had seven or eight things that we have all believed regardless of denomination or background. And I want to run through those real quickly because I believe these. I'm assuming most of you all do, but it changes how you look at everything. Premise number one, no purpose of God can be thwarted.

Job 42 too. I know, oh Lord, that you can do all things and no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Psalm 33 talks about God frustrates the plans of nations.

He frustrates the plans of peoples, but the plans and purposes of God are steadfast and cannot be changed. Second, the gospel is going to go to the whole world. Jesus said go into all the world and make disciples. He says this gospel will be preached all around the world.

It's going to happen. Third, God's will for every single believer is that we become a mature Christ-like Christian. In other words, his desire, his agenda, Romans 828, he's conforming all of us to the likeness of the Son.

He's going to make you and me like Jesus. And he uses everything up, down, hard, good, Romans 828 to accomplish that. Fourth, the greatest apologetic in the world is Christians loving fellow Christians radically, authentically, sacrificially. Jesus' last words were a new commandment I've given to you that you love one another in the same way that I loved you. By this, all the world will really know that you're my disciples.

Number five or six, I lose track of the numbers. But as the greatest need in the church today, in fact in the world today, is for Christians to live like Christians. When Christians live and are not just thinking about, not even agreeing with, but actually living like and acting like Jesus, there are ripples that have always happened in every season of world history.

And when they don't, the opposite is true. And then finally, God's agent of change, his hope for the world is the church. For better or worse, this body of Christ, followers of Jesus, you are, I am, we are the light of the world. And Jesus is coming back and he will judge the world justly and everything will one day be fair and there will be a new heaven and a new earth and all will be made right one day.

And until then, he's left us here to help bring that about. So with that, there's five realities that I want to go through. And what I hope you'll leave with is a couple of things. One, a real sense of hope because those early things you should have seen your face when I was going through, how hopeful are you about, right?

I'm not too hopeful humanly speaking. But when you look at it through the lens of how does God work and what does he want to do and what does he promise to do, then it's really helpful. So reality number one, Max Dupree says is that's the job of leaders is to define reality is we're living in a dark world locally, nationally and globally. Can you agree with that? Here's the deal, problems don't get fixed until problems get faced.

It's dark locally, it's dark nationally and it's dark globally. Second reality is God's story from beginning to end gives us, underline this, a certain hope to pierce the darkness. It's not like, oh, all is lost, what's going to happen? You'll notice I put a little picture and John chapter 1 verses 1 to 4 is on one end and Revelation chapter 21 is at the other end and I put the cross right there in the middle. Here's what I want you to get is that from the very beginning the piercing of the darkness is guaranteed so we have hope. And I'm going to ask you to go ahead and open your Bibles to John chapter 1.

Here's what I want you to get. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him and apart from him nothing has come into being that has come into being. So basically all that was created was by the word. We'll learn who the word is and most of you all know who it is. It's Jesus.

I want you to get this. In him Jesus was life and the life, underline that, was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness could not overcome it. Some of your translations will say comprehend it.

Both are true. And then if you will, maybe it's been a while since you went all the way. It's probably the last page of your Bible. What I want you to see is there will come a day speaking of light and truth and perfection and goodness and peace and no tears and no pain and no disease and no violence. This Jesus who pierced the darkness, follow along as I read verse 22 through 27 in Revelation chapter 21. This is the new heaven has come on a new earth.

All judgments are over. He says, I saw no temple for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are his temple. And the city has no need for sun or moon to shine upon it for the glory of God has illuminated it and its Lamb is the light. And the nations shall walk by its light and the kings of the earth shall bring forth glory into it. And in the daytime for there will be no night there for the gates shall never be closed and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. And nothing unclean, no one who practices an abomination or lying shall ever come into it but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. And what I want you to get is reality number one is that it is a dark world right now that we're in a crisis. And second is God's story from beginning to end there is hope. And from the early church Peter would write this in the midst of Nero burning Christians at the stake.

He said, be sober. Get your mind girded or fixed on the hope that is coming at the revelation of Christ. In other words, the anchor is this is how it's going to end. This is where we are now and here's the problems that we have. If you just look at circumstance you'll be tempted to blame other people.

You'll be tempted to whine and complain. You'll be tempted to do anything but be the very light and say there is hope. And what we're going to talk about this morning is how do we pierce the darkness?

How did Jesus do it and how does it work? Light brings a number of wonderful things. It brings God's presence and glory. When there's light there's trust. When there's light there's purity. When there's light there's holiness and freedom. His word is light. His will is light.

His path gives us a light about how to live in every relationship. Light gives perspective and light gives guidance. By contrast we live in a world where there's darkness, evil, chaos, disobedience, perversion, violence, secrets, immorality, impurity. People are blind. Nations are blind.

Deception, bondage. Now the temptation when you think about light is that it's like this metaphor. Oh there's light and there's darkness.

Here's what I want you to get and I'm almost ashamed to say this. I've studied the Bible for quite a few years. About a year ago there was an insight and I don't know why I didn't see it about light that I read over for years. I didn't even memorize the passage because I think yes there's light and there's God's word and we need to pierce the darkness but it gets super clear. See it's not just a metaphor. You know what the light actually is? Turn the page. You know what the light actually is?

We read it. The light is the life of Christ. In other words what changes things?

What pierces? What brings about life and what does things in families and individuals and cultures and nations it's not just an idea and it's not just truth. It says Jesus' life was the light of men.

You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Before we hear the rest of Chip's message, let me remind you that we are a listener supported ministry. Your regular gifts help us create programs like this one, develop new resources, and encourage pastors globally. Prayerfully consider becoming a monthly partner today. Then go to livingontheedge.org to give a gift.

Thanks so much for your support. We'll hear again as Chip. In fact if you skip down to verse 18 it says no man has seen God at any time but he, Jesus, explained him. The word is exegete in Greek. In other words if you're a Bible student you maybe heard someone, I'm reading this text and I'm going to exegete.

That means I'm going to explain what it really means. Jesus came to explain what God is like, how he thinks, what he values. He would say when you've seen me you've seen the Father. The word became flesh, verse 14, and dwelt among us and he lived this perfect life and it was how he lived, not just how he spoke. It's how he treated people.

It's how he responded to evil. See his actual life, what he actually did, not just said, was the light that pierced the darkness. And then notice it wasn't just his life but his ministry wasn't about you're my disciples now. I want you to learn all that I will tell you and someday I want people to sit in small groups and read the Bible and agree with what I've said. When you would follow a rabbi in Jesus' day there were three goals. Number one, you wanted to be with him. You wanted to become like him. You wanted to learn everything that he had learned and then you wanted to reproduce or teach others in exactly the way that your teacher or your rabbi. Jesus didn't say come and learn about me and agree with this truth and come and listen to someone talk a few times a month and then sing some good songs and go live over here. He didn't say become the light. Try hard to be light. He said you come follow me. Here's the path and this path is life and it cuts through the darkness of the world.

Imagine this. You, if you're a follower of Jesus, you are the light of the world. And so God brought you here so you could be his disciples who pierced the darkness and change what happens. See the answer isn't out there.

The answer isn't someone else. You are the light of the world so what's he say? Matthew chapter 5 verses 14 through 16, let your light so shine before men that he might, they might see your good works and glorify your father who's in heaven.

That's the agenda. The light isn't a concept. The light isn't just getting people to read the Bible. They've got to see the truth in ordinary people like you and me. So reality number three is that Jesus' life is the light that overcomes. Not just concepts, not just truth. Reality number four, God's greatest work has always occurred in the darkest moments of human history.

There's a historical pattern and the pattern goes something like this. There's a very, very great need. And this great need is caused by a very, very great sin. And the great sin produces bondage. What's the narrative that the Bible always goes back to, right? Children of Israel in Egypt in bondage, 430 years.

The judges, same thing. Seasons of kings, same thing. Four hundred silent years, the same thing. There's great need and the great need is because people say this is God's path.

We're not going to live His path. And so they end up in bondage. It's a lot like us, right? You know, you get discouraged, you get depressed, so you start eating a bunch of food or you drink more alcohol than you should or you start, you know, you want to do something that will sort of ease the pain and whether it's logging on to something or spending money in a certain way. And then you do it and it feels good short term and then pretty soon what? You can't stop eating. You can't stop drinking. You find yourself in debt up to your ears. You find yourself in, we call it an addiction. See, the world always offers a quick fix.

And here's the pattern that happens. When God sees people in bondage, He has compassion. And that word is used of Jesus. The word is splotna.

It literally means coming out of the bowels. When God sees people that are hurting, that He loves, literally something hurts deeply inside of Him to the point that He has to act. That's the word compassion. When you see it in the New Testament of Jesus, when it says He has compassion, He will immediately do something. He either heals someone or begins teaching and helping. And it's interesting that God's compassion, when you look at these big historical cycles, out of His compassion, He allows judgment to occur. So in other words, He actually, like a velvet vice, when we're on this path, God allows us to experience the consequences of behavior that is wrong so that we feel the pain, so that we feel the pain, so we feel the pain. So guess what?

Help! Didn't that happen in the pandemic? Didn't a lot of people turn to God like never before? I have some friends that are evangelists here and around the world.

They said they've never seen an outpouring of people coming to Christ. But then the way He does it is He raises up a deliverer. And whether it's a Noah during a time of violence, whether it's a Moses, whether it's a Joshua, whether it's an Esther, whether it's a Nehemiah, He raises up a deliverer. And here's the key, the process. It's usually through a clear, strong vision that meets the great need. And I love this, usually through ordinary people.

I mean, think about when Jesus decided to pierce the darkness and change not just world history, but I mean change everything. He chose 12 very ordinary people. And He chose them from backgrounds that they would never get along on their own.

A few fishermen leave their business. Now they're going to be good Jews with a tax collector who's despised and a radical. They got a guy who's not just a traitor, but he's a terrorist. And he takes this group of people and he says, this is what's really important. I'm what's important.

God's agenda is important. And it's more than your Jewishness. It's more than your background. It's more than your politics.

It's more than your bias. It's more than how you used to view people. This is the light. And I want you to follow me. I want you to know me and I'm going to reveal the Father and we're going to walk together and the world is going to be completely changed. And over and over and over He delivers by ordinary people. And as you go through church history, I mean whether it was a Martin Luther or whether it was a Deborah in the Old Testament or an Esther, when things get really, really bad, He finds a man or a woman or a student whose heart is fully His who just can't stand the status quo that is sick and tired of whining and complaining and blaming other people and just says, God, if there's something I could do, I will do whatever you want me to do. And He says, okay, I'll use you. And He seems to have this weird deal where He likes to take the most unlikely people that aren't necessarily the smartest, not always the best educated, don't always come from the best stock, so that when it happens, everyone knows it couldn't have been that person.

And He gets the glory. I made a list of some people. After Jesus, there was Paul. Then there was Timothy. Later on, there was, we got our scriptures. A guy named Tyndale died getting the scriptures into English. Hus was later burned at the stake. A little later in history, there's a guy named John Wesley who was that kind of person, another guy named Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards in this country.

And then it kept rolling down through different times. There was a layman's prayer revival that spread all across America in the middle of the 1800s. No one even knows who the individuals were. Prayer meetings popped up all over.

Literally thousands upon thousands of people came to Christ and whole cultures were changed. In more recent times, the D.L. Moody's and the Dawson Trotman's and the Bill Brights and the Lauren Cunningham's and you go on and on and on. And those are the big names that we kind of hear about, but the fact of the matter is those are ones that we know about, but it's a student in a school. It's a stay-at-home mom in one neighborhood. It's a person in a church.

It's someone in a back little cubicle at Apple and one at eBay and one over here at Microsoft and the sports team. And God takes someone who's light, who's very ordinary, who's willing to not just agree with what the Bible says or agree that I'm a Christian, but actually will do what Jesus did and actually teach what Jesus taught. And here's the final part of this reality is that Jesus' life, what he actually did, launched his kingdom of light movement by starting small, dreaming big and going deep. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening to part one of Chip's message, Our Hope, How God Works in History, from our series, Piercing the Darkness.

Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. The purpose of light is to illuminate and make things visible. It's the opposite of darkness, right? In this series, we'll better understand our call as followers of Jesus to be a light in this dark world. Discover how the life Jesus modeled while on earth, along with the ideas of hope, faith, and love he taught, empowers us to be difference makers and pierce through the darkness we see all around us. I hope you'll join us for every part of this series. But if you miss a message, you can always catch up through the Chip Ingram app. Chip's back in studio with me now. Chip, I'm really excited for our listeners to experience this new series, and it has an intriguing name. Today's message really got us off on the right foot. Take a minute, if you would, and give us a little back story behind this teaching and why it's so necessary right now.

I'd be glad to, Dave. You know, the fact of the matter is, there is a sense of a great darkness, of things are negative, the news feeds that we get. Unfortunately, we live now with technology where every bad thing that happens over the entire world can be in our palm of our hand within seconds or minutes.

And with that, it's skewed our view of the world. And Jesus said, I am the light of the world, and the darkness cannot overcome it. There is some fantastic and good news, and God is working, has been working, and he's going to work. And this series is about our hope, how God works in the world. It's about our faith, how he actually works inside of each one of us. It's about our love, how God works through us. We desperately need hope.

Jesus pierced the darkness, and we are the light of the world. Powerful reminder, Chip. Well, I hope you can join us for every program. And to help you get the absolute most out of this series, let me encourage you to download Chip's Message Notes. Now, you can get them under the Broadcasts tab at LivingOnTheEdge.org. Tap Listeners, tap Fill In Notes. We'll hear again as Chip to share a few final thoughts. Thanks so much, Dave.

I want to take a minute and loop back to a point that I made toward the end of the message. God's greatest work has always occurred in the darkest moments in human history. And for many reasons, maybe we're not in the darkest, but it's pretty dark. When you look around the world, when you look at the breakdown of the family, I mean, I don't need to remind you of all the challenges that there are. But I do need to remind you of something. It's that God has always used ordinary people.

There is a way that He has intervened in history. I want to remind you that you have value. You have a purpose. It's not some big thing that's going to happen out there someday, some way. Where you are, where you live, your job, the church that you go to, or the season of life that you're in, and this idea that we need to be great or smarter or have more resources than we currently have, God chooses people, very ordinary people. They start small, they dream big, and they go deep. I just can't wait for you to stay with me in this series as you, where you are, can hear and feel the Spirit of God nudge you to just start small, to dream big, and to go deep in a way that you are used in the days ahead like never before.

Great challenge, Chip. Thanks. As we wrap up, I want to thank those of you who make this program possible through your generous financial support. Your gifts help us create programs, purchase airtime, and develop additional resources to help Christians live like Christians. If you've been blessed by the Ministry of Living on the Edge, would you consider sending a gift today? You can do that by visiting LivingOnTheEdge.org or by calling 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or visit LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners, tap donate. We want you to know how much we appreciate your support. We'll join us next time as Chip continues his series, Piercing the Darkness. Until then, I'm Dave Druey, thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.