Prepare for Worship | From Darkness to Delight
Last Sunday, Ronnie Morris preached from Acts 25:1-27 and exhorted us to entrust ourselves to our sovereign God.
Read: Acts 26:1-32
This Sunday, Pastor Ken Lewis will preach from Acts 26:1-32 and will show us that the gospel alone has the power to make the blind see. As you prepare for our Sunday worship gathering, let this sermon excerpt from John Piper point you to the truth that everyone who is transformed by the gospel is called as an instrument of God so that the blind would see.
Reflect: “From Darkness to Delight”
Open Their Eyes
Recently, in my devotions I read again the commission that Jesus gave to Paul, and I felt again burning inside to be used like this. Jesus said:
“I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” (Acts 26:17–18)
“God has always chosen to use human instruments to do his supernatural work.”
So the whole world is blind in spiritual darkness, unable to see the truth or the brightness or the beauty or the glory of Christ. And the whole world is under the authority of Satan, who exploits our sinfulness to continually deceive us as to what is truly beautiful and truly valuable and truly satisfying. And the whole world is under condemnation for its sins — unforgiven. And the whole world is unholy, impure unsanctified without any faith in Jesus.
And Jesus says to Paul, I am sending you to change all of that.
“I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”
Do What Only God Can
Of course, all of that is impossible for a human being to bring about. Open the eyes of the blind. Deliver from satanic bondage. Grant forgiveness of sins. Sanctify what is unholy and make it pure. Awaken saving faith. But Jesus says, “I am sending you to open their eyes.” God has always chosen to use human instruments to do his supernatural work. That’s why Crossway exists. That’s why Desiring God exists. That’s why you exist.
And, thankfully, Paul does not leave us in the dark as to how God does this supernatural work through human instruments. Here’s what he says in 2 Corinthians 4:4:
“The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
That’s the situation described in Acts 26:18. Then follows the human and the divine act to turn this situation around:
“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:5–6)
The Creator of the universe, by the mouth of a Christ-exalting spokesman, shines into the darkness of the human soul where Satan, the god of this age, holds a person in bondage to blindness and deception. What does he shine with? He shines with the very thing that Satan and sin have been blinding us to. He describes it in two ways: (1) “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (verse 4) and (2) “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (verse 6).
Five Effects of God’s Work Through Us
Paul describes the miracle as it happens in Acts 26:18. As he preaches, their eyes are opened. And five things happen dramatically.
They turn from darkness to the light.
That is, the whole stream of their affections flows out to the brightness and beauty of the light of the glory of Christ, and no longer flows in the other direction. They now hate the darkness and love the light. They cleave to Christ for the light and glory and beauty that he is.
They turn from Satan to God.
Their old master, who painted himself with such deceitful colors, is now clearly a monster and their archenemy. They hate what he stands for, including all their sin. And they see in the glory of Jesus the glory of God.
They receive the forgiveness of sins.
As God brings them out from under the authority of Satan, and out from under the deception of darkness, into the embrace of the brightness of the glory of Christ, their sins are forgiven for Jesus’s sake.
They find their place, their lot, their portion among those who are sanctified.
In other words, their newness is not just legal pardon, but real purity is happening. Sins are canceled, and sins are being conquered.
Jesus says to Paul, this is happening “by faith in me.”
In other words, this movement of the soul out of darkness into light, and out of satanic bondage into God’s freedom — this flow of the soul’s longings and desires, embracing and receiving and welcoming and cherishing and treasuring the brightness of the beauty of Christ — that movement, that flow of the soul to Christ that changes everything is called faith.
Let God Use You
So when I said that I long to be an instrument in helping people make the kind of discovery that produces a deep and pervasive and eternal revolution in their lives, that’s what I was referring to. So I am praying, “Lord, apply Acts 26:17–18 to me, to Desiring God, and to Crossway.”
“I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”
And I think I have good warrant for believing that you and I may hear a personal commission in these words, because in 1 Peter 2:9, Peter is describing every believer when he says,
“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
Paul is not the only one who is commissioned to proclaim the beauties and glories and excellencies of the one who brought us out of darkness into the marvels of his light. Everyone who has been given eyes to see God’s glory, everyone who has been released from the bondage of satanic darkness, everyone who is bound to Christ by his supreme beauty and value is commissioned to “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
Excerpt from the sermon: “From Darkness to Delight,” February 27, 2018, desiringGod.org, by John Piper.
Sing: Song List for Sunday
1. “The Lord Almighty Reigns,” Arr. Marr Boswell
2. “By Faith,” by Keith and Krystin Getty
3. “Thank You Jesus for The Blood,” by Charity Gayle
4. “There Is One Gospel,” by CityAlight
5. “Jesus Paid It All,” Arr. Alex Nifong