What If This Isn’t the End of Your Story? | Marcus Mecum | 7 Hills Church

Amen, amen. Luke chapter 22, let's look at verse, I'll probably start reading in verse 52. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders who had come from him, am I leading a rebellion that you have come at me with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts and you did not lay a hand on me, but this is your hour when darkness reigns. I want to focus in on that verse. I believe there's a great truth in it for our lives, but this is your hour when darkness reigns. Jesus is saying something that I believe is extremely profound when he says, this is your hour. He's implying that the clock is ticking. He's letting us know that, yeah, this is your hour, darkness, you're reigning right now, but darkness, even though it has its hours, hours end. Jesus would say in John 7, 20, that his hour had not yet come. In John 8, 30, he says, again, my hour has not yet come. In John 2 and verse 4 at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, Jesus would tell his mother, Mary, my hour has not yet come. In John 13, 1, he says, he knew, Jesus knew that his hour had come. In Matthew 26, 45, it says that the hour is at hand. This idea of an hour, this idea of, of there are times in your life where it feels like darkness is reigning. It feels like, like when you look at your life, it's, it's like, how am I ever going to survive this that I'm going through? But Jesus makes it clear. This is just an hour and hours end. The soldiers would show up in the garden and they would arrest Jesus. And as they're arresting Jesus, he makes that startling statement. This is the hour that darkness reigns. But I like the idea that inside of that, there's a message that darkness, the clock is ticking and that hour at some point will end. Judas, the Bible says one of the 12 came up and gave Jesus the kiss of betrayal. And I can hear Jesus saying to the betrayer, I can hear him saying to Judas, this is your hour, Judas, but our ends. He was taken from Judas to the priest. Anas, Anas examines, Jesus binds him and then delivers him to the high priest Caiaphas. And I can hear those words again to Anas, Anas. This is your hour that darkness reigns. You're going to have your hour, but hours end. Caiaphas would take Jesus, interrogate him over his teachings and his messages, interrogate him over his disciples, who they were, where they were from, what their qualifications might be. And in the middle of the interrogation, a soldier there hits the lovely face of our Lord Jesus Christ. Eventually Caiaphas would take Jesus and lead him to Pilate. And I can hear Jesus once again, say to Caiaphas, this is your hour. Darkness will have its hour, but let's never forget God also has his hour.

Darkness might have its day, but God will have his day. Caiaphas leads him to Pilate. Pilate gives the orders for Jesus to be beaten with 39 lashes with the cat of nine tails. Pilate delivers Jesus to the soldiers. And I can hear those words again. This is your hour, Pilate, but hours end. The soldiers would devour the back of Jesus with that whip made of jagged bone and glass, an instrument that was designed to dig deep into the tissue and the muscle. And as it was pulled out, would literally rip the back wide open. The reason the limit was 39 is because no man had lived beyond 39 lashes. The goal was to take Jesus to the brink of death. And I can hear him saying. to those soldiers, this is your hour, but hours end. They would take him to Herod. Herod wanted to see Jesus perform some kind of miracle, but Jesus, not being an actor or performer, did no miracles in Herod's chambers, and so in disappointment, Herod would send Jesus back to Pilate. And I can hear those words again, Herod, this is your hour, but hours end. Pilate would try to wash his hands, but the crowd would cry out, crucify him. Their cries would get louder and louder, crucify him. And Pilate just walks away from that moment, but I can hear Jesus saying to that crowd, this is your hour. Darkness is raining right now, but hours end. The soldiers would take Jesus. They would drive nails into his hands and his feet. They would force the crown of thorns upon him. They would lift him up on Calvary. And I can hear Jesus again saying, this is your hour. This is the hour of darkness, but hours end.

They would take his lifeless body, lay it in the tomb. And I can hear those words echoing once again. This is your hour, darkness. Tomb, you're gonna have your hour, but hours end. Just as you have a Monday, you're going to have a Tuesday. Just as there's a Tuesday, there's going to be a Wednesday and a Thursday and a Friday and a Saturday, but eventually you come upon Saturday night and the clock begins to tick. And at some point, Sunday morning comes and the hour when darkness rains begins to end because when Sunday comes, the hour of darkness is over and his hour begins. They were crucifying him, but that hour was going to end. They beat him, but that hour was going to end. And the day where the grave was empty and Jesus was raised back up was coming. See, there's something about darkness that God puts on a clock. It's not like it has freedom to reign and rule and do whatever it wants to do. It's not like darkness is somehow out from underneath the control and the rule of God. Darkness, you're going to have your hour. Enjoy it, angry mob, because your hour's going to end. Enjoy your hour, false witnesses with your lies. Enjoy your hour, self-righteous Pharisees. Enjoy your articles and your writings, scribe. Enjoy your hour because hours end. And when hours end, Sunday is going to come.

Enjoy your freedom, Barabbas. Enjoy that cowardly hypocrisy, Annas. Enjoy your power, Caiaphas. Enjoy your newfound popularity, Pilate. Enjoy your mockery, Herod. It's your hour. That's the hour of darkness, but hours end and Sunday's going to come just as there was a Wednesday, there was a Thursday, there was a Friday, there was a Saturday, but I showed up to say those hours at some point ended. The clock was ticking and God's going to have his hour. Praise God, that's what we're here doing this week. Sunday is going to come. I say this because in your life, of course, we're looking at the grave. Of course, we're looking at the cross. As we enter Holy Week, but the truth is we have those same hours in our life that just are so dark. I wish I could say in serving God, you will not have the hour that darkness reigns, but more than likely, you'll have more of those hours than you would ever care to have. But the hour ends. That's the message that Jesus is giving all of us when we're facing something that seems unjust and it seems unfair and it seems like, why is this going on in my life? This is the hour where darkness reigns, but hours end.

God's going to have his hour. is our, God's going to have his day. Sunday is going to come. The grave is going to be emptied and God is going to raise up your life in the same way that he raised Jesus's life up. You see, I can think about the place of Gethsemane and not that we would ever face what Jesus faced, but we will have those hours of crushing, those hours that are extremely dark, those hours where our prayer is, God, take this cup from me. I don't want to drink this cup. I don't want to go through this in life. I don't want to experience this kind of heartbreak. But the prayer we prayed versus the answer that God gave us are completely opposite. God, I asked you to do this and then I have to settle on, I guess, once again, this is not my will, but it's yours be done. Gethsemane, the hour of immense pressure. Gethsemane is a dark hour. But I love that Jesus there in Gethsemane said, this is your hour, darkness. Enjoy your hour. Enjoy your hour, pressure. Enjoy your hour, the times of being overwhelmed. Enjoy your hour, trial. Enjoy your hour, Gethsemane, because hours end and Sunday's going to come.

I can relate to the betrayal that we see with Judas. Most of us will have those dark hours when your inner circle turns its back on you, when somebody you love hurts you, when someone that was supposed to believe in you, they were supposed to stand, they were supposed to cover. But the opposite, and now you're experiencing the sting of that betrayal. It's a dark hour, but you don't have to live in that hour. You don't have to stay in that hour. God has already orchestrated at some point that hour ends and Sunday can come. So enjoy your hour, betrayal. Enjoy your hour, rejection. Enjoy your hour, Judas. Enjoy it because hours end and Sunday is going to come. You have to have that thing in you just like Jesus that looks at the darkness and says, enjoy your hour, false witnesses. Enjoy your hour, accusations. Enjoy your hour, injustice. Enjoy your hour, death. Enjoy your hour, grave. Enjoy your hour because hours end and Sunday is going to come. God will have his hour. He's always had it. He always will have it, and it's no different with you. I just showed up to encourage somebody to take courage today. Take courage, cancer patient that's unsure of the test

that you're about to receive. Take courage, man with breast cancer. Take courage, sir, with lung cancer. Take courage today when you're facing various trials. It's a dark hour, but hours end, and Sunday's going to come, and the grave is going to open, and our Savior is going to reign. You just have to get it in your heart. Darkness, you're gonna get your hour. It gets its hour with every one of us. No one escapes those dark hours. No one escapes the dark nights of the soul. No one in any way can escape the moments where darkness is reigning, but what you can do is make the announcement to the darkness. You're gonna have your hour, but hours end. So take courage, all of you that are heartbroken. Take courage, all of you going through an ugly divorce. Take courage, lonely widow. Take courage, weary father and tired mother. Sunday is going to come. There is going to be the day God has his hour in your situation. The thing that I want to say, though, is your resurrection depends on how you handle the hour of your crucifixion. Jesus didn't just surrender to it. He didn't just submit to it. He didn't act like, well, this is all it will ever be.

He did not. give up, he made it clear, you're going to have your hour. Genesis one, when God said it was the first day, this is how he announced the first day. The first day was evening until morning. Notice how God speaks of his days. We talk about the day from morning until evening. In other words, the beginning of the day is when the sun rises. And the end of the day is when the sun sets. In other words, darkness has the final say in the day. But that's not how Jesus said a day is. A day is the opposite. It might begin with the darkness. It might begin with the sun setting. It might begin with some dark hours. But at some point, that sun's going to come up. God ends not with the sun going down. He ends with the sun coming up. That's why it says early in the morning on the third day. I love that. Early in the morning, that sun came up. And at some point, you gotta settle it in your heart. The darkness doesn't have the final say. God has his hour. He'll always have his hour. If faith can open the tomb and get him out, there's not one thing you can't throw into that open tomb. You can grab that sickness and you can throw it in the tomb.

If you can believe that Sunday morning is coming, you can believe that healing is coming. You can take the brokenness and you can throw it into that open tomb. Because if you can believe that Sunday is coming, you can believe that restoration is coming. If God can open the door of death, he can open any door in your life. Paul said it like this in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 17 through 19, and I'm just gonna give some of the highlights of those verses, and I hope that's okay. I wanna get to the bottom line of it. But he says, if Christ is not raised from the dead, we're of all men the most miserable. Right before that, he says, our faith is useless, our message is useless, our ministry is useless. If Christ is not risen, everything we do is useless. There's four things that all scholars, historians, and philosophers agree on concerning the life of Jesus. One, that he lived. Jesus historically walked on this planet. Number two, they all agree that he died by death of crucifixion. That that's how he died. Historically, it is a fact he died by Roman crucifixion. Number three, they all agree that he was buried in a tomb somewhere in Jerusalem. And number four, they all agree that the tomb was empty. Now, they debate how the tomb became empty.

Some would say, well, the disciples stole the body of Jesus, which carries on the lie of what the scripture says, that when the soldiers went and told the authorities, they paid the soldiers and told them to lie and say that the bodies, the body of Jesus had been stolen. Others would say, well, the disciples, they just went to the wrong tomb. Like you're gonna forget the tomb of someone you love. Others would say, well, he wasn't really dead. He just went into a deep coma. And when they laid his body in the tomb, eventually the coldness of the stone revived him. And he got up out of a coma for three days, back ripped open, hands nailed with, wounds and feet with wounds and side slashed open. But he had the strength after that coma to push away that stone that had been sealed and somehow fight off those two or more guards that were guarding the tomb. They all agree he lived. They all agree he died, how he died. They all agree that he was buried. They all agree that the tomb was empty. But Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse three through four, he says, what it was, no one took his body. No one stole his body. He didn't go into a coma. They didn't go to the wrong grave. But if Christ died for our sins, that's what the scripture says.

He was buried and he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. He is alive and he'll be alive forevermore. Darkness might have its hour, but hours in and Sunday is going to come. I love the idea of resurrection. I love the idea of the historical resurrection, the truth of his body, his not spiritual, but his physical body got up out of that grave. I love it. I'm thankful for it, but I'm even more, or I shouldn't say more, but as thankful that that resurrection isn't just historical to me, it's personal. I experienced that resurrection. I can't explain it, but I can tell you I was one person before Christ and I was another after. I've not been perfect, far from it, but I've never been the same. I'm not the same person. I don't look at things the same. I don't approach life the same. I would walk into a church service before and it made no sense to me. And after that moment, all of a sudden, the Bible just seemed to just jump off the page to me. I couldn't wait to hear preaching. I couldn't wait for the worship to begin and seeing all hail King Jesus. I couldn't wait to worship.

I went from my eyes being blind. I couldn't see anything that God was doing to my eyes being open. I went from being deaf to being able to hear all the sudden, just be able to just had a sense that God was working on my behalf. God had purpose in everything that I had ever been through and that God somehow was working all that together for a grander purpose. And I was just a small little part of the beautiful body of Christ that I could find a way to be a part of it. And every joint could supply every need that somehow if I could find my place in the body, it could perfect it. And God could use that to meet the needs in other people's life. I just can't explain it. I can just tell you, I experienced. That's what Paul said, you must know him and the power of his resurrection. It's not talking about the historical account. It's talking about the same power, the same spirit that raised up Christ from the dead. The tomb was not the place the resurrection ended. The tomb is the announcement that that same spirit that raised him up from the dead now comes and lives on the inside of you and quickens you. I've been quickened. I'm a new man.

Somehow that same spirit came alive in me. It's no longer I that live it. I'm talking about darkness will have its hour, but it's Christ that liveth in me. That hour is going to end for you. The hour of darkness is going to come to its close. The clock is ticking and there comes a day when God says, okay, it's my hour now. It's my turn in their life now. And when God shows up, it's important that you remember, he's a God that's going to lift you and he's gonna open doors for you. And he's going to make a way where it seems to be no way. And he's not a God that he should lie. In the same way he raised Jesus up, he keeps raising people up out of their graves, out of their death, out of their sin, out of their hopelessness, bringing them. into a beautiful life. Sunday's coming. You go to work this week, on Friday, you ask your coworkers, you ask your friends at school, what are you doing this weekend? They'll probably let you know about the party that they're going to have, how they're gonna go party, and how they're gonna go do this, and how they're gonna go do that, because the world parties to forget.

But we celebrate to remember. I'm preaching this sermon to you not because it's deep, I'm preaching it to you because that's what we celebrate. We remember that darkness had its hour of raining, but hours end. And Sunday showed up, and when Sunday showed up, darkness was pushed back. We celebrate to remember. We remember that God does not begin with the beginning in mind. God goes to the end, and then he works, he creates the end. And then he works back to the beginning. So there's no point where God runs into something in life, and it surprises him. I didn't expect this. I didn't know this was gonna go on. He's never surprised. So those dark hours are not a surprise to him. The times that darkness rains, it's not a surprise to him. Because he's already working with the end in mind. The point is, don't focus on the hour of darkness. You focus on the end. You focus on the fact that God has his hour. God will have his say. I like it, I heard it years ago, a little boy was on his couch reading through a little book, and his mom wanted him to wash the dishes. And he said, mom, I'm in the middle of my book. And he said, you're gonna,

she said, you're gonna put the book down, and you're gonna get up, and you're gonna wash the dishes. He said, mom, I can't, I can't. Right now, the bad guy's winning. The bad guy's winning, I can't put down the book. I can't stop here, I can't stop now. I can't go wash the dishes now. I've gotta read a little bit more. I've gotta see what happens. The bad guy's winning, the villain is winning. I can't stop here. And the mom said, you're going to put that book down, and you're gonna wash these dishes, or else. And so the little boy flips all the way to the last chapter, and he reads the first paragraph, and he closes the book, and he jumps up. He says, mom, I can wash the dishes now. And she says, what, what, what happened? And he said, oh, I just went ahead and went to the last chapter. I saw how it ends, and I saw how, in the end, the villain is brought down. And you have to go to the last chapter every now and then. You have to go and read how it ends. You have to go and read that the Bible says that the dead in Christ shall be raised up first. That's the last chapter. And that all of us who are yet alive will be caught up in the air, and together we will be with the Lord forever.

You gotta read the last chapter. That we'll stand before the judgment seat of Christ, the beam of judgment, the reward judgment, where every single one of us will be rewarded for every act of faithfulness, for every decision that we made. God's eye was on us in every one of those moments where we could have been unfaithful, but we said, I'm gonna be faithful. Where we could have given up in the dark hour, but we said, I'm gonna stand. Every single one of those times, you said yes to push the gospel forward. You said yes to push the kingdom of God forward. You'll stand, and there will be a reward for those deeds that you have done in the body. And the Bible says, then we'll take those rewards, we'll take those crowns, and we'll throw them at the beautiful feet of Jesus, because the whole time we did what we did for him and for his glory, and he is the one that is worthy of anything we do in this life to receive glory for it in the next. I've read the last chapter, where at the marriage supper of the lamb, Jesus will marry his bride, the church without spot, without wrinkle, and without blemish. I've read the last chapter that the eastern sky is going.

He's going to split and he's going to get on the white horse. And the Bible says that his vesture will be dipped in blood and on his thigh will be written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That his hair is white like wool and his eyes like a flame of fire and out of his mouth came a sword and the Antichrist and the false prophet and Satan and all of his demons will be bound and in one moment thrown into the lake of fire and we shall reign with him. I've read the last chapter, Sunday's coming, darkness has its hour, but hours end. Between now and then, we've got a job to do. We've got an assignment, Sunday's going to come. As sure as the hour of darkness ended on the third day, all the evil, all the wickedness, all the darkness has its hour now, it will end. But until then, we've got a job to do. This week, let us spend our time, let us spend our energy, let us spend our prayers, let us spend our conversations knowing someone is in a dark place and that hour could end for them. This Easter season is all about resurrection. Let's not keep it in a historical place. Thank God that that's what we're all about. But God's still looking to bring people from death to life and he uses us to do it. Be praying for people that are away from God. Be praying for people that are in a dark place and as a church family at every location, let's say God use us in this next season to be a light, to be life to people. Darkness is reigning in their life. Every eye closed, every head bowed. I want to do a couple things real quick. Maybe you're here today and you've been in a place where darkness has reigned in your life. Heaven has had its hold on you, this world, your flesh. Proverbs says, you've given your years to the cruel one. You've avoided God, you've avoided the cross, you've avoided that God sent his only son

into this world not to condemn you, but he died on that cross, he paid a price for you. You've not given any thought to that or you've not given your life to, you've given your life to the cruel one and darkness has reigned. But in this service you'd say, Marcus, I sense that hour is ending for me. The time of darkness reigning is coming to a close. Maybe God's making it clear in your heart right now, it's my time, it's my turn. I want to have my hour in your life. And you'd say, Marcus, I know today I can't leave this place without saying, God, I want you to have your hour in my life, I want you to have your hour in my heart. You'd say, Marcus, I've not put my trust in Christ, I've not surrendered to him, I've not given my life to him, I'm not saved, I'm not born again, Jesus has not been the Lord of my life, but you're in this service and you'd say, pray for me, I want the hour of darkness to end. I want God to have his hour in my life. On the count of three, if that's you, lift your hand as high as you can, one, at every location, lift that hand as high as you can, one, two, three, throw that hand up. God bless you, thank you. Say, why am I putting my hand up? I believe there's a reason for it. God bless you, thank you. Let's all put our hands on our hearts, say, Jesus, I believe that you died on a cross, that you shed your blood for my sin, forgive me, cleanse me, wash me, make all things to be bright. brand new. I repent of my sin. I turn from it and I turn towards your grace. I believe that you're God's only son and that he raised you from the dead. I give you my life now in Jesus name.