Light and Joy through Darkness and Sorrow

Intro

Can you think of a time in which you experienced intense grief or anxiety almost immediately followed by relief and/or joy?

I had one yesterday. I got to spend much of my afternoon with Reuben at the ER. While he was playing outside he ran into a metal hook and it sliced his skin open right at the top of his nose. There is nothing more nerve-wracking than when your kid has an injury bad enough that you need to take a trip to the hospital.

Once we got there and checked in, Reuben and I sat and waited while we cut up and laughed together. One thing he said to me really stuck with me. He said, "wow dad. You must have been really nervous about me getting hurt. Now that we are at the hospital you seem a lot happier because you know they are going to take care of me."

I said, yes son. You are right. I was pretty shaken up when you got hurt because I hate it when you are in pain but I do feel better knowing you are getting the care you need.

Tension

Life is full of moments like we had yesterday. I'm talking about the kind of moments in which something very troubling takes place but then someone who can help swoops in and bring peace and healing to a broken situation and it sets us at ease.

The deepest, darkest, and saddest truth about us is one that we have no way of possibly healing for ourselves. We are stuck in an impossible situation, just like Jesus was when he lay stone dead in a tomb. How can death be undone? How can overwhelming darkness be lifted?

It takes a God sized move to do something like that. It takes a miracle and the good news about the Resurrection of Jesus is that he proves to us that death is not as hopeless as it seems to us if God is present to intervene. And if death isn't a darkness too great to overcome, then no darkness is too great for God to overcome in us.

What needs to be resurrected in you today? Are you carrying a great loss that you've never been able to let go? Do you have a sin pattern that you just can't seem to shake? Perhaps you have never given your life to Christ and you are still walking in sin and death.

Everyone here has been affected by death, sin, pain, and loss. It's not whether we have been affected by death and darkness that we are here to discuss today so much as whether or not our death has been touched by the life of Christ.

Truth

Luke 24:1–12 ESV

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

Question 1: What is the power of Christ’s resurrection over me?

Christ’s resurrection means that no dead thing has to stay dead if God is involved. He is making all things new, beginning with his own dead body, then us, and eventually the entire broken world.

Everything that feels dead to you now, can be made alive again in Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:20–26 ESV

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Question 2: How can we be raised with Christ?

We are raised up with Christ by being in Christ.

Everyone on the Titanic who failed to get onto a lifeboat died. The same is true for those who refuse to bail on Adam and enter into the life of Christ through repentance.

Like those who remained on Titanic, for those of us still living in the pattern of our first father Adam, death is our only ultimate inheritance.

Yet for those who flee from this world and run to Christ, every sad thing about us will be undone. Every dead thing in us will be raised to new life. All of our sadness will become untrue.

Romans 5:12–21 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Question 3: How does Jesus’ death make life possible for us?

By entering into ultimate sin, sadness, and darkness through death and rising from it, Christ overcame the darkness of this earth and removed its dominating power over humanity.

In Adam all die, and indeed everyone who is walking Adam's path will die not only a physical death but an ultimate spiritual one too.

But in Christ, all are made alive. Christ endured the worst (indeed, our worst) so that we could enjoy his best. e made us for more than the existence we have forged for ourselves. We have to die to Adam’s vision so that we can live in Christ’s.

Christ offers us an alternative path in him and his path is quite different. In Christ, though we experience temporary death we will live. His path is one of redemption.

Application

God is calling us to live in his resurrection power and to reject the ways of our first father Adam.

Deuteronomy 30:19 ESV

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

Choose life and not death.

Easter is an annual marker for us, a reminder that we don't have to choose death any longer. We have a God who lived a perfect life in our place, died the death we deserve to die, and rose to a new life that is now offered to us because he paid the price and made the way.

We can either go on living as the world does, oblivious and indifferent towards God and running headlong into death with Adam or we can choose the path of life in Christ.

Resurrection of Christ was the joy which followed the deepest darkness the world has ever known. He rose in light after walking through darkness. We likewise, after having walked in darkness have seen a great light in Christ.

The real question is, now that we have seen his light, will we build our lives within it or will we continue fading into darkness with the majority of humanity?

May you choose life this day.