James Meehan - 3 Truths to Fight Darkness with Light

Watch
Get involved

If you want to lose a fight, the best thing you can do is go into it unprepared, but if you wanna have any chance of winning, you’ve got to be ready for it. Now, on the final day of my sixth grade school year, my friends and I had an incredible plan. Like, we were gonna end the year in the best way we knew how. So, at approximately 11:55 AM, about 15 minutes into our lunch period, I was going to grab a fist full of food, hop onto the lunch table, shout at the top of my lungs, «food fight,» and just launch it across the cafeteria, and then my friends, who would be strategically placed throughout the cafeteria, would take that as the signal to also start flinging spaghetti. So, on that day, when 11:55 hit, I did not hop on the table. I did not give everybody the signal, and so that lunch period went the same way every other lunch period went for that sixth grade year.

Now, in case you’re wondering, I did not chicken out. I also didn’t wise up to it and realize it was a bad idea. The reason I did not start that food fight is because, while I was walking to lunch period, Jason was walking right in front of me, turns around, and decks me in the face. I was not prepared for that, so I shoved him back. I said, «Dude, what’s your deal»? And because Jason is one of those people that believes actions speak louder than words, he punches me again, and because, for some reason, I still thought I could reason with him, I still didn’t hit him back. I pushed him again and said, «Dude, like, what is your problem»?

Now, thankfully, hit me once, shame on you. Hit me twice, maybe shame on me. Hit me three times and I’m an idiot, but I was ready for the third time. So he throws the third punch. I’m ready for it. So I tackle him into the lockers. We scuffle for a little bit, but then the fight almost immediately gets broken up because all of this took place 17 feet away from the principal’s office. So, a few minutes later, we’re sitting in Mr. Harris’s office. He was the vice principal, and he starts asking some questions to get to the bottom of it, and that’s when Jason reveals his motivation. Jason said, and I quote, «He stole my sucker».

To be clear, I did not! I didn’t touch his sucker, but his friend told him I did, and so Jason started a fight with me that I was not ready for, and as much as I hate to admit it, I lost that fight. He hit me twice and I hugged him aggressively. Now, why do I tell you all of that? It’s because, if you’re not ready for a fight, you’re almost certainly gonna lose it, and whether you realize it or not, you are in a battle, but listen to me. It is not a battle against some sixth grader who thinks you stole his sucker. You are in a battle between good and evil, right and wrong, hate and love, hell and heaven, and more than anything, I want you to be ready for the battle that you are already in, and what you need to understand is that, in this fight, there is no neutral ground. You are either with Jesus or you’re against him.

Now, don’t just take my word for it. That’s exactly what Jesus says in Matthew 12:30. He says, «Whoever is not with me is against me. Whoever does not gather with me scatters». That’s why, if you’re taking notes, I want you to write this down because this is the main point of our message today. Fakers side with hell, but followers fight like heaven. Fakers side with hell, but followers, we fight like heaven.

And so Lord Jesus, we come before You right now and we ask that You would speak to our hearts, that You would help us to see honestly where we are really standing, either with You or against You, and that anybody who finds out that they are not with You, that they would change their ways today, that they would choose to put their faith in You and trust that Your way of life is so much better than life without You. We pray all this in Your name. Amen and amen.

We’re in a message series that is called «Fakers or Followers,» where we have been learning together how to become fully devoted followers of Jesus, how to become people who love God with all that we are and love others the same way that Jesus loves us, and along the way, we have been learning how not to become fakers, people who talk the talk but don’t actually walk the walk, and more than anything in this message, I want you to be aware of the fight that you’re in. I want you to be ready for the fight that you’re in so that you can join with Jesus. You can fight like heaven and share in the victory that He has already won, and so what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna look at a passage of scripture found in Matthew 16, where we’re gonna learn three really important truths that will help us learn to fight like heaven and help us make sure that we aren’t accidentally siding with hell.

So, in Matthew 16, we’re going to be reading from verse 15 is where we’re gonna start, and this begins with Jesus asking His disciples a question. He says, «But what about you? Who do you say that I am»? Who do you say that Jesus is? And Simon Peter, one of his followers, says, «You are the Messiah. You’re the savior king, the rescuing ruler, the chosen one of God. You are the son of the living God». And Jesus replies, «Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood. You didn’t learn this from people. This was revealed to you by God in heaven, and I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock». The rock of Jesus' identity, the rock that is Jesus himself, Jesus will build his church. «And the gates of Hades will not overcome it».

The gates of hell, death, and darkness will not stand against the kingdom that Jesus is establishing, and so if you’re taking notes, I want you to write this down that Jesus is king and nothing can stop His kingdom. Jesus is king and nothing can stop His kingdom. Jesus is the savior king and son of God. He died and rose again to rescue us from sin, and He has invited all of us to be a part of His unshakeable, everlasting kingdom, but did you notice what He said? He said «the gates of Hades». Gates are not a weapon used for offense. Gates are a structure that is used for defense.

This is an important detail because what Jesus is saying is that He is taking the fight to the enemy, that He’s not waiting for hell to come to Him, but He is going straight to the forces of darkness. He’s going to build His church and He’s gonna bury hell, and that’s why we do stuff like The Bash. For those of you who weren’t here for it, on September 10th, World Suicide Prevention Day, we decided to throw a big old party with a purpose because we wanted to help you and your generation break free from the plague of suicide, and on that day, across all of our churches, we saw 10,000 students show up. We had 3,000 leaders that were present, all of us being equipped by the hope of the gospel, the truth of God’s word, so that we can partner with God in his good plans for the world. On that night, hundreds of young people gave their lives to Jesus. They stepped out of darkness and into light.

On that night, hundreds of people committed to stay here. They canceled their suicide plan. On that night, hundreds of people signed up to take the ACT suicide prevention training so they can be equipped to have life-saving conversations with friends, family members, classmates. We’re not waiting for darkness to come to us. We are the light of the world and we are going where it is dark to bring the hope of Jesus wherever it’s needed. This is what we’re here for. We are in a battle, and we’re not sitting around, waiting for bad stuff to happen. We are following our king who is building a kingdom that nothing and no one can stand against.

Now, here’s what’s really important though is in that passage of scripture, we saw Peter confess boldly the truth of who Jesus is. This was an incredible moment, but right after this, Jesus starts telling his followers how His victory is going to be achieved. He’s telling them that, «I’m gonna go to Jerusalem, and when I get there, I’m gonna be rejected. I’m going to suffer. I’m gonna be killed, but then on the third day, I’m going to rise again».

Jesus is telling His followers really clearly how He is fighting this battle, not through violence and conquest, but through obedience and sacrifice, but Peter did not like what Jesus was saying, and so Peter, verses after this incredible confession of faith, pulls Jesus aside and he begins to rebuke Him. He says, «Never, Lord. This shall never happen to you». And then Jesus turns, he says to Peter, «Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns». A few verses later. «Peter, you’re blessed. You’re the rock». «Hey, Peter, you really messed it up. You’re kind of sounding like the devil».

Now, you might be finding yourself thinking, «Okay, like, I get it. Peter probably shouldn’t have done what he did, but that feels a little bit harsh that Jesus is gonna straight up call him the devil». And that’s why this point is really important, because sin, death, and the devil are the real enemy. When Jesus looks at Peter and calls him Satan, it’s because Jesus is speaking to the power that is motivating Peter to say what he’s saying. Jesus is acknowledging that the problem isn’t the person in front of him. The problem is the force that is moving through him. Our battle as followers of Jesus is not against flesh and blood. It is against sin, death, and the devil, the powers and the authorities of this dark world. We’re not fighting against people. We are fighting against our spiritual enemy and all of the forces of darkness at his disposal.

So when Jesus calls Peter «Satan,» he was making it really clear in that moment where Peter was standing, and it wasn’t with Jesus. That’s why this next point is also really important, and I really, really want you to take this seriously, that you can believe in Jesus and still be on the wrong side. You can believe in Jesus and still be on the wrong side. Peter believed in Jesus. He had a really good understanding of who Jesus was. We just read it, but as soon as Jesus said something Peter didn’t like, Peter decided he knew better and he tried to lead Jesus.

There are some of you who you’ve been coming to Switch this whole semester. You’ve been listening to the sermons in this series, and for whatever reason, every time I talk about fakers, you don’t think I’m talking about you. I need this to be really clear. I am. I’m talking about you. I’m talking about me. I’m talking about people like Peter. If we’re not careful, we can think the fakers are just the atheists or the people who practice different religions. Those people aren’t fakers. Fakers are the people who say they believe in Jesus. They’re people who go to church, but they aren’t actually serving Jesus with their whole lives. They’re the people who, when things get uncomfortable, when following Jesus gets difficult, instead of standing with Jesus, they start siding with hell.

Fakers side with hell, but followers fight like heaven, and so after Jesus calls Peter out and reminds him where he belongs, not standing against Him but following behind Him, then Jesus says some words to His disciples that I really want you to hear as words for you because these are words for you. It’s in Matthew 16:24–25. After rebuking Peter, Jesus says to His followers, «Whoever wants to be my disciple, whoever wants to be my follower, whoever wants to stand with me must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me, for whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it».

Fakers side with hell, but followers fight like heaven. So how do we actually do that? How do we join in this fight that we’re already in? How do we share in the victory that Jesus has already won? How do we play the part that we have been called to play in this spiritual battle? We’re gonna jump ahead to 2 Corinthians 10, because this is where the Apostle Paul actually makes it really clear what the battle looks like and how we engage with it. Starting in verse three, Paul says, «For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does». We fight like heaven, not like the rest of the world. He says, «The weapons that we fight with are not the weapons of the world».

We don’t use anger, hatred, and violence. We fight with the truth of God’s word, with the love of Jesus and with the good news of the gospel, and our weapons have divine power to demolish strongholds. This is really important. This is how we fight. «We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God». Notice what he didn’t say. «We fight people». He said we’re fighting against ideas, false beliefs. We’re fighting against the ideologies that are driving people toward hatred. We fight against lies. We take them captive and we make them obedient to Christ. This is how we fight like heaven.

Now, I want you to see what this looks like. So our spiritual enemy has one strategy that he always uses. It’s not a secret. He wants to convince you of a lie that makes you afraid so that you will do wrong to others, and that lie is almost always some version of God isn’t good and they, whoever they are, are your enemy, because when we believe God’s not good, then it’s up to us to take matters into our own hands. When we believe that they are the enemy, then, all of a sudden, we’ve gotta get them before they get us, and force becomes justified, but as followers of Jesus, we tear down every lie with truth. We overcome fear with love, and we respond to evil with good.

My fight with Jason in the sixth grade started because he believed a lie that I stole his sucker, so then he saw me as a threat, and because I was a threat, he resorted to violence. That’s like a really small example, but tragically, we see much more heartbreaking examples all around us. And, like, I can’t even imagine what it must be like to be you and your generation, where you’re not just hearing the stories of tragedy, but you’re having to watch the videos. You’re seeing the images, and those are being burned onto your brain and you can’t get them out of there. Every single one of those things, it started with a lie that caused somebody to be afraid and afraid of another person, and so they resorted to anger, hatred, and violence. They chose to do evil.

Iryna Zarutska, a young Ukrainian refugee, murdered in cold blood. Charlie Kirk, a political activist, assassinated on a college campus. Far too many school shootings to keep track of. Countless innocent lives taken because of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. More than a million babies killed every year in our nation, and across the globe, there are thousands of Christians being killed because of their faith. Listen to me. All of that is wrong. All of that is evil, but if we respond to evil with evil, guess what? We don’t win. We lose. We side with hell and we just create more evil.

That’s why it matters so much that we tear down every lie with truth, that we let the love of Jesus push out all fear, that we respond to evil, however heinous it may be, with the goodness of God and his kingdom. Fakers side with hell, but as followers of Jesus, we fight like heaven. It matters. You have a part to play in all of this. In Matthew 10, Jesus is about to send His disciples out on mission and He tells them some really important words. He says, «I’m sending you as sheep among wolves, so you need to be as shrewd as serpents but as innocent as doves».

If we were fighting in the physical, if we were fighting on our own, it would be hopeless, 'cause I don’t know if you know this, but sheep don’t beat wolves, but thanks be to God that our fight is not physical. It’s not something that we have to win through violence, through anger, through hatred, through conquest. It is something that Jesus has already won through His obedience to the Father, His sacrifice on the cross. So, though we may be surrounded by wolves, we don’t run and hide. We stand in faith because the good shepherd is watching over us. The lion of Judah is leading us, and I don’t know about wolves, but I know that they don’t measure up to lions!

Fakers side with hell, but we fight like heaven. We join in the victory that Jesus has already won, and so when we go to our small groups in just a minute, I want you to ask and answer these questions. What lies do you need to tear down with truth? What fears are holding you back from choosing love? And what evil are you going to overcome by doing good? No matter how dark the world may seem, the light of Jesus shines brighter. No matter how overwhelming the powers of hell may appear, Jesus is king and nothing can stop His kingdom. He is building His church and He will bury hell.

And so Lord Jesus, we come before You right now, grateful for the victory that You’ve already won. I pray that every single one of us would be honest about where we are standing and that we would choose to stand with You, that we would resist the temptation to wage war the way the world does, and instead, we would fight like heaven with truth on our lips, love in our hearts, and Your goodness flowing through us. It’s in Your name we pray. Amen and amen.