WONDERFUL LIGHT
1 Peter 2:9,10; Colossians 1:12-14; Acts 7:54-60
I have been impressed about darkness and light; and the thought came into the hymn that we sang at the beginning of the meeting on Lord’s day morning, hymn 347. The third verse says,
‘With hearts now filled with glory’s light,
We tread our path through earth’s dark night’.
I have been thinking about the contrast between God’s world and man’s world. In the preaching, our brother spoke about man’s wisdom and God’s wisdom. It seems to me that we come across that in our lives; it is not so much a choice, but rather a complete contrast between (on the one hand) what God is doing and has done through the work of our Lord Jesus, and what He is doing in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, and (on the other) what man is striving after. Man’s efforts only lead to darkness. His world gets darker and darker.
When the Lord was here, He said that He was “the light of the world”, John 8:12. It is also said, “And the light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not”, John 1:5. Unless we are subject to divine light, we will dwell in darkness. What has just been said about the feet-washing that took place in John 13 relates to this: where the Lord was, divine love was in operation. Consider the humility and the lowliness of Jesus: He was the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and yet He was going round the circle and washing the feet of the disciples. What grace and what love! That is what wins the day. And over against that you have a man who allowed Satan to get into his heart through covetousness, and he went out. That is the situation in the world. If Jesus is rejected, there is darkness, but if He is accepted there is “wonderful light”.
That is why I read in Peter, where he speaks about “wonderful light”. That is how Peter felt about the light. He had known what darkness was. He came into the light, but then he did things that he should not have done. He did not go back into moral darkness, but in John 21 there is that fruitless fishing expedition which is often aptly described by the three words, night, nothing and nakedness. It was night, they caught nothing and they were naked – or Peter was; but it did not stay that way. What did Peter find? He came back to the shore and there was a fire of coals and fish on it. The Lord in His goodness and in His grace had provided everything for their sustenance, for their warmth, and their direction.
I could not help thinking about Stephen in this connection. He was a wonderful man who comes on the scene when something of a crisis arose, when there was murmuring in chapter 6. They were told to look out men and they found “Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit”, Acts 6:5. That is where we get these instincts that have been spoken about, so we know the direction to go in. Stephen here certainly was empowered; he did not lack strength nor power in the way in which he was able to speak. His words gave these benighted Jews the opportunity to come into the light. He presented the light of the gospel to them, but sadly he was refused.
What I was interested in was that his eyes were fixed on heaven, and what he saw was “the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God”. That was ‘glory’s light’; that was what he saw. The stones of hatred were raining down on him but he was lifted in his spirit above that, lifted above the persecution. He was lifted above the torrent of abuse, not only verbal but physical. These stones represented the hatred and the rejection of man, but Stephen was imbued by another Spirit. The Holy Spirit was helping him to overcome in the glorious light of a Man who had been subjected to far worse abuse than Stephen suffered; what Jesus did no other man could have done – He endured what no other man could have done. Stephen was in the full light and enjoyment and power of that, so he overcame wonderfully and his disposition was not changed: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”, and then he says, “lay not this sin to their charge”. What he said was limited to that sin of theirs against him. The Lord said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, Luke 23:34. What the Lord Jesus said there was on a different level, but Stephen had become imbued with the spirit of his Master and he was able to represent the mercy and the grace of God. How did he do it? “He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God”. He looked on the scene of ‘glory’s light’ and that helped him to overcome.
Now Peter commends these dear brethren, these persons who were scattered abroad, and he tells them how God looked upon them as “a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession”. I think that is what ministry would do: it enlightens us and reminds us of the height of our calling. That is the great service of “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession” in Hebrews 3:1. We have often been reminded that as the Apostle, Christ maintains the calling at its height, and as High Priest he maintains the saints at the height of the calling1. What Peter says presents the features of the Apostle and the High Priest. Peter is always an apostle but he is acting here, I think, in a priestly way and as a shepherd. He is caring for souls. He is feeding them and building them up, and then he cannot help speaking about what is in view, “that ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness to his wonderful light; who once were not a people, but now God’s people; who were not enjoying mercy, but now have found mercy”. I think that is what we experience on a Lord’s day: we are freshly reminded of the blessings that are ours. And once we lay hold of them in faith, even though we may sometimes for the moment lose the joy of them, or lose the power of them, nevertheless there is what is implanted in our souls that, under living ministry, is revived. I think that is how Peter was serving these dear brethren to whom he was writing.
When we come to Colossians, Paul is writing to an assembly of which he says that they were “bearing fruit and growing” (chap.1:6). There was already something very wonderful in Colosse, but then Paul encourages them further. He says, “giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light”. And then he summarises what he is saying by adding, “who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love”. Now you get these two features set in contrast to each other. They had once been under the authority of darkness: the degradation into which Satan and his world and his influence had drawn them; and then the contrast – the elevation, liberty, power and joy that the grace of the gospel represented here as traced back to the heart of the Father.
The Father is interested in us; He is interested in every one here. He is taking account of us gathered here, a few of us in a town. There may well be other believers gathered, there may be persons reading their Bibles: thank God for that. That helps to stem the power of darkness, but it does more than that. It brings us into an area of peace and joy and satisfaction, the “portion of the saints in light”. Such is our eternal portion, and in the power of the Spirit we can enjoy it now.
May the Lord encourage us, for His name’s sake.
Word in a meeting for ministry, Grangemouth
9 October 2024
Alan Munro
Edited and published monthly by Alistair Brown and Paul Martin
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