This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. In case you were wondering, it's not a sign of the apocalypse that I'm preaching two weeks in a row. Three weeks in a row, that's the sign. If you would take out your Bibles, please turn to Isaiah.
We had such a good time in it last week. Why not continue on? Isaiah chapter 60. As you're turning there, you know that this morning is Epiphany Sunday. I didn't know if you knew that or not. Epiphany is a season of light in the church, which is why, whenever we talk about someone having an epiphany, it means that they've had a sudden revelation of something. What, at one time was unknown, veiled in darkness, is suddenly bathed in this light of understanding. And our passage this morning out of Isaiah 60 gives us the history behind the celebration of Epiphany. It's this great and glorious passage, one that you've probably heard before. It's a passage that's full of promise and hope and victory. But I got to tell you something, we're not ready yet for Isaiah 60. We got to deal with what comes before it. And specifically, we need to understand what happens all the stuff leading up to Isaiah 59. Briefly, it was the summer of 586 BC, you remember. God's covenant people were drowning in this chaotic flood of darkness, which had come in the form of an enemy invasion. Now, the Assyrians, as we learned last week, they had already overrun the ten tribes of Israel to the north. They did it back in 722 BC. Well, the two tribes of Judah to the south, they managed to survive a while longer. But eventually, the darkness descended on them as well. Last week it ended and we said that the Assyrians began their attack on them in 701 BC. But it was the Babylonians who landed the knockout blow. They invaded the capital city of Jerusalem. They tore the temple apart piece by piece, robbing it of its treasures, burning it to the ground. And by the summer of 586 BC, God's promised land was emptied of God's promised people. Of course, the natural question for us was why? And guess what? That's what they were thinking as well. Wrestling with this question, why? Why had they been kicked out of the Promised Land? Why had they been taken away captive slaves and all these pagan empires? After all, they were certain that they'd kept their end of the deal with God. They'd attended their worship services regularly. They'd prayed their daily prayers. They'd fasted so much that they had worked it down to a science. So why hadn't God kept his end of the bargain? It says in Isaiah 59, or, sorry, Isaiah 58 says, why have we fasted and you see it, not, Lord? Why have we humbled ourselves and you take no knowledge of it? And they reason, well, perhaps our gods just unable to save us. Perhaps God is no longer listening to us. And so there they sat in exile, scattered throughout pagan empires, the glorious home of the Promised Land was in ruins. And all the while, they lamented and they searched and they hoped for some relief to the darkness that surrounded them. Now, biblically speaking, darkness is not the place you want to be. Throughout God's work, darkness is kind of a metaphorical shorthand for a whole host of ugly things in life that can really hurt you. Stuff like ignorance, folly, falsehood, deceit, wickedness, lawlessness, evil, chaos, sin, death. I mean, we all instinctively recoil at those things. We avoid the darkness. We do whatever we can to keep darkness at arm's distance. And that is honestly never more truth than during the Christmas season that we've just been through. Now, there are commercial reasons why our culture has the decorations out before Halloween is even over. But the reason they do that is because there's a psychology behind it all that makes it work. There is a reason why Christmas sells so well, so early in the year. And it's because with Christmas comes light. And light brings all the things that our culture's collective soul is starved for. Light reminds us of favor and blessing and happiness and love and peace and joy. And so our world will do whatever it can to enjoy those things, even if it's forced and artificial, even if it only comes once a year, even if it only lasts as long as a month. But not so with God. See, God won't allow us to close our eyes to the darkness and pretend that it's not there and pacify ourselves with some cheap imitation of his kingdom. Instead, with God, if we're going to enjoy the real thing, he requires that we first deal with the darkness before we get to the light. So when God's people were lamenting and captivity as to why they were there hoping for light but only getting darkness, God gave them an answer. You see that in the first few verses of Isaiah 59. Isaiah told them, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save or his ear dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. See what God's people had failed to recognize is that the darkness was there doing. Their problem wasn't with the Assyrians or the Babylonians, their problem was with God. See, the invasions that they had suffered were really God's judgment on them because of their covenant unfaithfulness to him. I mean, he'd warned them about it for years through his prophets so that they could avoid it. See, we think the prophets were just there to predict the future, huh? The prophets were there as God's divine wake-up call to his people to confront them with their covenant infidelity, to humble them in the face of their sinfulness and to compel them to return to him. But we know well that old habits die, our deaths. See, when the judgments began, when the invasions ensued, God's people looked for strength in military numbers. They sought protection and alliances with pagan kings. Instead of repenting and looking to God's word for guidance in the midst of their crisis, they pow out, as they say, with mediums and with those who consulted with the dead. And then rather than humble themselves before God and cry out to him for help, they chose instead, we're told, to curse their king and their God in a fit of bitter rage. And so Yahweh, who was supposed to be the rock of refuge for his people, instead became the stone that made them stumble, the rock that made them fall. And then later, when he indeed promised them a redeemer, he made it very clear to them that the redeemer's coming would only be good news to those who would repent. Now, as a church, it's a little disconcerting. It's oftentimes hard for us to come to terms with reading passages where we see God behaving this way towards His people. I mean, after all, isn't our relationship with God based on love and mercy and grace? I mean, surely he doesn't treat us that way anymore. Surely that's the Old Testament God. That's God BC. Before Jesus came, truth is, God hasn't changed. He is and he always has been loving and gracious and merciful and forgiving towards His people. But we have to remember this, we're His covenant people. Our relationship with Him has governed more than just by His grace and His mercy and His love and His forgiveness. Our relationship with Him is governed by His Word. And if we are indeed His children by His grace and His love, then He's going to discipline us when we refuse to heed His Word. And even though it's not as simple as well for every sin that someone commits, God gives an equal amount of darkness in their life, it's not that easy. It's a complex thing here, but we have to make no mistake about it. God's covenant is what governs our life and structures our reality, whether we want to admit it or not. And so we have to own up to this idea that all of the darkness that we experience in life is the result of sin. It may be somebody else's sin or it may be our own sin. But nevertheless, the darkness is there because of sin. The real truth isn't that God's changed. The real truth is that we haven't changed. The reason why it's difficult for us to come to terms with God acting the way that He did towards His people during Isaiah's day, the reason that's difficult for us is because it's difficult for us to come to terms with our acting the way that His people did back in Isaiah's day. Honestly, seriously, no one wants to take a good hard look at the depth of our own sinfulness. None of us want to actually think that we could be the people that Isaiah describes in chapter 59 verses 2 through 8. See, when the darkness comes into our life as a covenant reality, we should be troubled by that darkness. We should be properly troubled by that darkness and receive it as a reminder and an opportunity for us to have godly sorrow and repentant. But instead, what do we do? Well, we tend to use all of our expendable income to build this little bubble around us so that we don't have to face the dark realities of the world. And then when the darkness manages to worm its way in and invade our carefully constructed lives, what do we do? Well, we use the practices of our faith. We use our religion as a smokescreen to blind ourselves to the millions subtle little ways that we forsake God and we rebel against His Word every day. We're just like the people of God and Isaiah's day. So, beloved, before we get to Isaiah 60, we've got to own up to our part of the darkness. We need to take the time necessary to ask God to reveal to us where we have been unfaithful to Him and then we need to take the time to wait on Him to answer. We need to confess our own sins instead of just pointing out someone else's. And then when we're aware of someone else's sin, you know what we should do? We should confess it as our own. I encourage you later on today. Look at Isaiah 59 and you're going to notice something in the very beginning when Isaiah confronts God's people and verses 1 through 8. He confronts them in their sin with the words you and you're. But then when it comes time to confess and verses 9 through 13, he changes it and he starts saying things like our sins, our transgressions. Isaiah is not pointing fingers anymore. He's owning it as his own because he knows that within his own heart he's as sinful as they are. See God has called us to be priestly intercessors for the world. That's what he's called us to be in Jesus. We should be praying for the world for our leaders, our co-workers, our neighbors, our friends, our family. We need to be going to God on behalf of all of the people who don't yet go to God on their own and confess and repent not only for our own sins but for theirs. And then when the darkness outside and around us threatens and it invades our lives, we got to turn to God folks. We can't be looking to our Roth IRAs and our 401Ks and our 403Bs. We can't look to CNN, Fox News or any of the talking heads on TV or the blogosphere. We can't look to the White House or Congress or the Pentagon or Facebook. We can't look to Oprah, Ellen, the View or any other TV therapeutic chat fest. We can't look to the NFL, the NBA, the NHL or the MLB. We can't look to our inner child or our warrior self. We got to look to God. We need to trust Him for the help that we need in the time of darkness. We need to turn to Him for the refuge that we seek when the darkness invades our lives. Because after the darkness and now we come to Isaiah 60, beginning with verse 1. God speaks to the prophet Isaiah to his covenant people and he says in the midst of all that darkness arise. Shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples but the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you. And the nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see. They all gather together. They come to you. Your sons shall come from afar and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. Then you shall see and be radiant and your heart shall thrill and exalt because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you and the wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ipa. All those from Shiba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you, the rams of Nebeoth shall minister to you. They shall come up with acceptance on my altar and I will beautify my beautiful house. Beloved is the Word of God. Thanks be to God for his Word. So there they were. God's covenant people, smack dab in the middle of trouble, anguish, despair, scattered in exile throughout pagan empires, the glorious home of the promised land in ruins, the temple, the promise of God's being among them was burned to the ground. They're left with nothing in life but to grope and wander in a land of utter darkness and here God comes to them and he assured them that the time was coming when justice would no longer be far from them and righteousness would no longer stand far away from them. God comes to them and he promises them that he was coming to enter seed for them. His own arm was going to bring their salvation and he told them that not only would they be gathered as a people from afar whose hearts would thrill and exalt, he told them that they would be added to from among the nations. The kings and the peoples who were once their oppressors would one day become their fellow worshippers and that all of the glory that had been stripped from them when they went into exile would be freely restored to them and even more the wealth of the nations would be lavished on them. And then just like in the beginning you remember Genesis one when God's there and by a spirit hovering over the dark and watery chaos of the heavens and the earth and he said let there be light just like then God comes to his people through Isaiah and he recreates them by his spirit through his word with those commands arise shine. He was telling them arise now rather than let the present darkness that was all around them hold them down forever and rather than live a life of perpetual growling and lamenting and mourning and despair and grief and sorrow. God came to his people and he called them to live by a faith that was going to cast off all the sin and the doubt that had weighed them down and he was calling them to stand up and to be established and to endure in the midst of the trial and the exile and God called them to shine and he said shine now. Rather than hoard the blessings that God had given them and would give them for themselves and rather than consume each other by exploiting and oppressing the weak among them which is what they were guilty of which is what led them into exile to begin with. But no God said he was calling his people to live by a faith that was going to make them as a light to the Gentile nations revealing the glory of God to them and as a result it would compel and draw all the families of the earth to be blessed through them and God said that he was going to enable them to arise and to shine. They weren't going to arise and shine on their own it wasn't going to be a work of their doing because that's what again what got them in the mess to begin with. It says they would arise by the light that would come to them and they would shine by the glory of the Lord that would arise upon them and in case there was any doubt left in them. God buttoned up all of this with this declaration which I think is in verse 22 we didn't read the variant of it he says I am the Lord in its time I will hasten it and hasten it he did indeed I read just a portion for the sake of time out of Matthew chapter 2. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea and the days of Herod the king behold wise men from east came to Jerusalem saying where is he who has been born king of the Jews? We saw a star when it rose and have come to worship him and then later on I believe in verse 9 it says and behold the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. And when they saw the star they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother and they fell down and worshiped him and then opening their treasures they offered him gifts gold and frankincense and more and being warned in a dream not to return to Herod they departed to their own country by another way. God did indeed hasten it but it wasn't going to be something that arose from within his own people know his own armwork salvation for his people the light did come upon them and the person and the work of Jesus Christ his son. Now it's January 6th 2013 and at the dawn of this new year we all know there's still darkness in our world we still wrestle with trouble anguish dark despair as the people of God we're not home yet we are enemy still war against us our sins still abides with us there's still a deep darkness all about us covering the earth. But beloved this morning God by his spirit through his word is calling us once again to live by faith and not by sight you see the Israelite rescue from exile and the restoration I say it was speaking to them about it but it was still yet future far far in the future. But yet God comes to them and he tells them to arise and shine and to take hope and rejoice and obey in the present you see in that passage God speaks to them through Isaiah and verbs that are in the perfect mood God was talking to them about their future but he described it to them in the past tense as if it had already happened arise shine for your light has. Come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you this was just God's way of telling us people look man it's as good as done now for us as the church the arrival of our light truly has come it is a past event for us Jesus Christ has come. And ever since his birth God has been making good on his promises we saw just there in Matthew in the Matthews account but all of the birth narratives in the gospels from day one people are drawn to Jesus's presence lowly shepherds pagan magi faithful Jews like Simeon and Anna. The light of Jesus's life begins swallowing up all the darkness that covered the earth and it was in their lives and you know what he's continually doing that even to this day all throughout the world. Every day the gospel is advancing the church is growing and the kingdom of God is coming so even though we still live in darkness. And even though the kingdom of God with all of its great joy and peace aren't yet here in its fullness God still says to us arise and shine and he tells us to do it because you know what the light coming and everything that comes from that that's the Lord's doing the nations and the kings were told they shall come they shall bring good news the praises of our Lord. They shall come up and worship our God because the Lord has promised that he will arise and his glory will be seen and he will beautify his house. So therefore beloved church of Jesus Christ arise arise today arise now we live in a world that is continually working to marginalize and discount and silence us as the church but ours is the promise that just as when the light came into the darkness and Jesus Christ the sun and the darkness could not overcome him. Ours is the promise that the darkness will not overcome us as well because it's not our own light that shines it is his light. This isn't the time for us to be wandering and groping about like the walking dead. This is the time for us to stand up and be established and persevere with hearts that thrill and result in God today. Now we must shine when Jesus Christ our king send it up into heaven he gave us his spirit and then he pointed out to the world and he said you go get him. God has created us and called us and he has blessed us to be a light in the world and we cannot fulfill that mission by becoming like the world in order to attract them. Rather we have to become like our Lord Jesus who is the light of our life the true light which draws all men and women and children to God to save them. Lest we forget the book that we've been preaching through prior to going into the Christmas season. You remember what it's called right it's not called sitting around waiting for the rapture it's called the book of the acts of the apostles or the acts of Jesus Christ through the apostles. See now is the time for us to work together to clean up the darkness that still covers our world. Now is the time for us to trust that God by his spirit is indeed making all things new through Jesus. It's a Christ kingdom church arise now shine now for our light has come and he will come again. Beloved he is coming again thanks be to God let's pray. Most gracious God we pray with the Psalmist establish our footsteps in your way that no sin or iniquity would have dominion over us. That we as the church would not hide our light the light that has been given to us in Christ but instead Lord God we pray that we will repent and that we will arise and that we will shine. Lord we know that you have come and we know that you are coming again we ask this for your glory God for your kingdom for the sake of the world which you so greatly love. Amen.