Battle Over Darkness.

On multiple occasions I draw us back to a battle that started in Genesis 3 with the temptation of the first man and the first woman and this battle won’t end until the trumpet call of the Lord’s return. Darkness was looking for a way to infiltrate (Genesis 3) and topple God’s creation of man and woman: humanity was the Crown of God’s Creation; Satan wanted it tarnished, dirtied, knocked down and dragged in the mud. He wanted humanity to swim in darkness. His tactics worked.

Now we are in a battle that is darker than most of us [sheltered 21st century Americans] can see or even comprehend. This battle is covered up and masked by events that distract us like the 2020 clinical attention to Covid. This battle gets confused and distorted as our attention is waylaid. We become distracted by the political and legal fiasco around George Floyd. This battle is being ignored, covered up, forgotten and hidden under human intrigue and a delightful palate of enjoyable pastimes. This battle is dark and it is hidden; but it is real!

Are you willing to see how this darkness has misdirected our thoughts, our actions, our nation, our politics, our world? Would you be willing to chance an encounter of what has been hidden?

Jesus called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). Now what?

Now we can sit in a Starbucks and sip our Mochas in peace. Now we can go about our mundane lives and pursue endless games and gaming, sitcoms, Netflix originals and just meander through the remainder of our lives until we reach the gates of heaven. Is this what God has called his church to do?

Matthew 16 says that the Church of Christ will go on the offensive against the dark demonic forces that are at work in our world. When Jesus told this to the disciples, they were standing in the middle of one deep, dark and demented landscape that typified the darkness of which I speak: graphic and horrific ungodly acts of indecency (simply look up, “Matthew 16 and Banias”).

And how will the Church of Christ go on the offensive against the darkness of this world? Peter was inspired by the Father to share the answer with us:

“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’” (Matthew 16:15-18).

On this rock—understood as the confession of Peter and in turn, the confession of the Church of Christ—Jesus will build His Church. Peter was expressing an eternal truth that will cause darkness to cower: Jesus, true man, is the God-man who was (Gen. 3) destined to crush the power of darkness. Every believer trusts that Jesus went to the cross to pay an immense price in blood; that payment sets them free from the power darkness had over them. Jesus is the power to pulsate the destruction of darkness in every location we find it. The gates of hell will not overcome the Church of the Living Son of God! That’s real power which is already at work crushing and exposing darkness.

Pray for this battle that we are in. Pray that darkness gets knocked down, knocked out and pushed back. Darkness is building in our world. As you see it grow, recognize the darkness crushing power that is the Christ, the Son of the Living God: Jesus.

And if you want to see just a glimpse of how darkness has pervaded our culture and how Jesus is fighting it through His Church, then watch the movie, “The Sound of Freedom.” You will thank and praise the one who breaks the darkness with His all-consuming power and love.