I would invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the
Old Testament book of Isaiah. We're going to be looking at
chapter 60 today. You can find that on page 619 in
the red Bibles and the chairs around you.
If you're visiting with us today.
We have been studying this book of Isaiah.
It's a long book, 6066 chapters, and we've been looking at it for
the better part of a year and a half.
And months and months ago when I was planning out the final
chapters and when we would cover what chapter on what Sunday, I
realized that chapter 60 was going to fall on Easter Sunday.
Now, as we read chapter 60, you're going to see how that put
a smile on my face without having to plan for it.
God and His Providence decided that this is what we should read
today. This is what we should think
about today. This is what we should be
changed by today. Listen as I read to you from
Isaiah chapter 60. Arise, shine, for your light has
come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, in thick darkness the
peoples. But the Lord will arise upon
you, and His glory will be seen upon you, And 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 son shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be
carried on the hip. Then you shall see and be
radiant. Your heart shall thrill and
exalt, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you.
The wealth of the nations shall come to you.
A multitude of camels shall cover you.
The young camels of Midian and Effa, all those from Sheba shall
come. They shall bring gold and
frankincense and shall bring good news, the praises of the
Lord. All the flocks of Kedar should
be shall be gathered to you. The Rams of Navy off shall
minister to you. They shall come up with
acceptance of on my altar, and I will beautify my beautiful
house. Who are these that fly like a
cloud and like doves to their windows?
For the coastland shall hope for me the ships of Tarshish.
First, to bring your children from afar.
There's silver and gold with them.
For the name of the Lord your God, and for the Holy One of
Israel, because he has made You Beautiful.
Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall
minister to you. For in my wrath I struck you,
but in my favor I have had mercy on you.
Your gates shall be continually open, continually, day and
night. They shall not be shut, that
people may bring to you the wealth of the nations with their
kings LED in procession. For the nation and Kingdom that
will not serve you shall perish. Those nations shall be utterly
laid waste. The glory of Lebanon shall come
to you, the Cypress, the plain, and the pine, to beautify the
place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet
glorious. The sons of those who afflicted
you shall come bending low to you.
All who despised you shall bow down at your feet.
They shall call you the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy
One of Israel. Whereas you have been forsaken
and hated with no one passing through.
I will make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age.
You shall. You shall suck the milk of
nations, you shall nurse at the breast of kings, and you shall
know that I, the Lord and your Savior, and your Redeemer, the
Mighty One of Jacob. Instead of bronze I will bring
gold. Instead of iron, I will bring
silver. Instead of wood bronze, instead
of stones, iron. I will make your overseers peace
and your taskmasters righteous righteousness.
Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or
destruction within your borders. You shall call your walls
salvation, and your gates praise.
The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness
shall the moon give you light, but the Lord will be your
everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.
Your sun shall no more go down, or your moon withdraw itself,
for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days
of mourning shall be ended. Your people shall be righteous,
shall all be righteous. They shall possess the land
forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands,
that I might be glorified. The least one shall become a
clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation.
I am the Lord, and it's time I will hasten it.
Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the
wonders of Your word as we take a few moments and meditate upon
it today. We pray for the work of the Holy
Spirit in these moments as we read it, as we think about it.
We pray that you would open our eyes and our hearts to see and
to receive what you want us to see and receive.
We pray that you would even be pleased to change us here in
these moments through the work of your Spirit.
We pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.
Many of you are probably familiar with the name John
Huss. Huss was a 14th and 15th century
check forerunner to the Reformation.
He was convinced that there were a number of errors being taught
by the church at that time, and he taught and he wrote
extensively about it. In 1415, a council was called by
the church, the Council of Constance and Haas was invited
to come to this council and to defend his grievances against
the disagreements with the church, and he was promised
safety while he was there at the council.
But instead, after he arrived, he was apprehended, he was
arrested, he was chained, and eventually he was condemned by
the church. He spent a good amount of time
imprisoned. His conditions were miserable,
he he became sick, he was isolated, and he was all alone.
Hus knew that he would almost certainly be executed
eventually. From every outward perspective,
Hus's life was darkness. And yet, from his prison cell,
he wrote a number of letters to friends and to family members.
And he wrote with an unshakable peace and even a measure of joy,
encouraging his friends and family to not lose heart.
He spoke of Jesus Christ as his sure hope, and he faced death
with an unmovable confidence. It's said that near the time of
his execution, he told the leaders of the church this You
may kill a goose, that's what Huss's name means in Czech.
You may kill a goose, but in a century will arise a swan that
you will not be able to silence. Now, whether he actually said
that exact sentence or not, his belief in conviction was clear.
He knew the end of the story, that his suffering, that his
pain, that his persecution and even his death was not the end
of the story because Jesus had rose from the grave, He had been
resurrected and in the end God wins.
On July 6th, 1415, at 46 years of age, Hus was burned at the
stake. It is said that he died singing
about the certainty of God's grace and mercy and the coming
of the Kingdom of God. He was able to live with hope in
the midst of his present darkness because he was he.
He was experiencing and he knew what the end of the story was.
The people that were hearing Isaiah's words for the first
time were also in a time of great darkness.
They had rebelled against the Lord, They had walked away from
following him, and the Lord had sent them into exile, first to
Assyria and then to Babylon. They had lost their freedom,
they had lost their home, they had lost their temple, they had
lost their way of life. The Lord, we read last week, the
Lord turned his face from them and he left them to their own
devices. And eventually the people began
to wonder, has the Lord finally and fully abandoned them?
Has he forsaken them? And this last part of Isaiah's
book is focusing on reminding God's people that are in the
midst of such darkness that he would never forsake them, that
he would send a great and powerful servant Redeemer to
rescue and to redeem them. Pointing first to their rescue
from their exile in return to the promised land, but pointing
to a much bigger and greater redemption that they would
experience in the future to a much greater promised land.
A place where the Lord would remove all suffering and
mourning and grief and sin, A place where the Lord would be
their light. The Lord's point.
And telling his people about the end of the story, about the
glory to come, was to give them hope and strength and even joy
that is needed to be able to persevere in the present, in the
midst of hardship, in darkness. And that's what we need to hear
again and again as well, how God's story, His story of his
eternal, almighty and sovereign plan ends.
Light overcomes the darkness. The city of God is restored.
The people of God are transformed.
In the end, God wins and evil and sin and death are defeated
and God's people live forever in light and glory of the Lord
because of the life and the death and the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus for God's people, the story ends with glory.
That's what we read as we come to Isaiah 60.
So let's reflect on this passage for just a few moments and let's
look and see how it tells us about how the light overcomes
the darkness. The city of God is restored, and
the people of God are transformed.
Now, before we jump into the passage, let's just remember
that there are multiple timelines going on when we read
Isaiah's prophecies. At this point in the book of
Isaiah, he's writing to God's people who were at exile in
Babylon. And certainly as he's writing
these words, he is talking here about the return from exile that
the people would experience the the going back to the promised
land. But as we've already heard, and
as we'll see as we look at the verses, chapter 60 of Isaiah is
bigger than just that event of going back to the Promised Land.
There are also foreshadowings here in chapter 60 about the
arrival of the promised Redeemer, pointing us to when
Jesus would come and accomplish his mission of redemption.
I don't know how you can't think of Jesus when you hear about
gold and frankincense being brought from the nations into
Israel. But as we read these verses,
there's a third timeline. Not just in the moment, the
return from exile, not just pointing to Jesus. 1/3 timeline
of the end of time itself, when Jesus returns for the second
time, when all mourning and sadness and grieving and pain
and sin and death will be finished.
We can see that third timeline as we begin reading the first
verses of Isaiah 60. Look at verses 1-2 and three.
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 nation shall
come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Light overcomes the darkness. If you if you remember back in
all the way back in chapter 6 of Isaiah, we saw the glory of the
Lord being displayed. We saw the seraphim singing back
to one another. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of
hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. They sang.
But back then the holiness and the glory of the Lord caused
Isaiah to tremble. He pronounced woe upon himself
because of his sin. But notice here in chapter 60
pointing forward to what is coming when Jesus returns.
The glory of the Lord has risen upon His people.
The glory of the Lord will be seen upon the people of God.
Darkness that is covering the earth, thick darkness that is
covering the people will be overcome by the light of the
glory of the Lord. And notice here the nations,
they'll be attracted to that light in verse three.
Nations and kings shall come to the brightness of the light,
we're told. Then we come to verses 4 through
9 and it gives us a picture of God's people coming home from
exile, but even more than that, a picture of God's people and
people from all nations being drawn to the bright light in
heaven, the glory of the Lord Isaiah.
If you notice in verses 5 through 9, Isaiah mentioned
several different locations there.
He's pointing to the reality that people will come from
everywhere to the light of the glory of God.
The wealth of the nations will be brought in.
The Holy One of Israel, the Lord of the Lord our God, will make
his people beautiful. It says at the end of verse 9.
This is an incredible picture here that we are being given of
the light of the glory of God overcoming the darkness of the
world, of the glory of the Lord rising upon his his people
making his people beautiful, and the nations being attracted to
that light. Then as we move to the middle
part of the passage in verses 10 through 14, we see this picture
of the city of God being restored.
Again, it would have been encouraging to the people who
were hearing these words for the first time.
They, they, they would hear about the fact that the city of
God was going to be restored. They, they longed for the city
of Zion, Jerusalem to be rebuilt and the the temple reestablished
and the walls restored. But Isaiah's words here are
pointing to something even bigger, the ultimate city of God
that is mentioned at the end of the Book of Revelation, a
picture of heaven itself. Verses 10 through 14, Isaiah
gives his people some exciting news.
He says that because of their sin and rebellion, in his wrath,
God had struck his people. He had, He had punished them and
sent them into exile. But because they are his people,
because they are the people of God, he will show mercy to them.
He says foreigners and kings who once imprisoned the people of
God would one day serve them. In fact, in verse 12, we read
that the nations and kingdoms that won't serve God's people
will perish. Verse 10, the walls will be
built up. The gates of the city will
remain open permanently to allow the wealth of the nations to
come in. In verse 11, the sanctuary, the
temple of the Lord, will once again be made beautiful and
glorious. In verse 13 and in verse 14,
those who were once afflicted, those who wants afflicted, God's
people will come and humility and service to Israel.
And what is all of this about? It is God reminding God's people
the end of the story, that in the end God wins and the people
receive glory. That's the whole point that is
being made here about the rebuilding and restoration of
God's city of Zion. But I want you to notice
something here at the end of verse 14.
Notice what it says here. They shall call you the city of
the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
This is not just a picture of the city of God being restored.
It is a picture of the people of God being transformed as well.
And that's what we see as we come to the final verses and
verses 15 through 22. Whereas you have been forsaken
and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you
majestic forever, a joy from age to age.
You shall suck the milk of nations, you shall nurse at the
breast of kings, and you shall know that I, the Lord and your
Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
Instead of bronze, I will bring gold.
And instead of iron, I will bring silver.
Instead of wood bronze, Instead of stones iron.
I will make your overseers peace and your taskmasters
righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard
in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders.
You shall call your walls salvation, and your gates
praise. The sun shall be no more your
light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light.
But the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God
will be your glory. Your Son shall no more go down,
nor your moon withdraw itself. For the Lord will be your
everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.
Your people shall all be righteous.
They shall possess the land forever, the branch of my
planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified.
The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a
mighty nation. I am the Lord, and it's time I
will hasten it. The Lord gives His people here a
picture of the transformation of His people.
That they would be majestic forever, That they would be made
a joy from age to age. That God's people will be amply
and sufficiently supplied and cared for.
They will have no doubt who their Savior is, who their
Redeemer is, who is the mighty One.
For 17 they will be transformed like bronze to gold, like iron
to silver. They will experience peace and
righteousness. Verse 18.
Violence will one day be no more devastation, destruction will be
ended. They shall live within the House
of salvation and praise, and the Lord Himself will be their
everlasting light and their glory.
Verse 20 Mourning, grief, sadness shall cease for them.
The Lord will transform His people such that they will be
righteous. They will be like a garden.
He says that the Lord tends and cultivates that glorifies Him in
beginning of verse 22. What is small and few will
become great, will become a multitude.
What an incredible picture of God being at work and His people
transforming them into a heavenly existence.
And do you want proof that He'll do it?
What does He say at the end of verse 22?
This is not Isaiah speaking, This is God himself speaking.
I am the Lord, I am Yahweh, he says, and in its time I will
hasten it. The sovereign, omnipotent,
omniscient, Almighty Creator of the universe guarantees that He
will do what He says. Who are we to doubt it?
So what do we do with all of this?
What are some takeaways for us today?
Three things. The first is this.
As God's people, we should have certain resurrection hope.
Resurrection hope. These words here in Isaiah
chapter 60, they were meant to fill God's people with great
hope to to remind us of what the Lord has promised that He will
do, That He would fill us with hope so that in the present
darkness and hardship that we face, we can persevere without
giving up. If that was true for God's
people back then, how much more so is that true for God's people
today? On this day when when we
remember and we reflect and we celebrate the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ, God's people should be filled with
true, enduring biblical hope, certainty, and satisfaction of
what is true and what is coming for us.
Resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus from the grave is
paying for sin and conquering death.
It secures everything that we're reading here in Isaiah 6 that is
being promised. And what's more, what's even
more than Isaiah chapter 60, we have the Book of Revelation.
We have the last book of the Bible.
And in chapter 21 of Revelation, we read this.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the 1st heaven and
the first earth had passed away. The sea was no more, and I saw
the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from
God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the
dwelling place of God is with man.
He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God
Himself will be with them as their God.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall
be no more. Neither shall there be mourning,
nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have
passed away. And he who was seated on the
throne said, Behold, I am making all things new also.
He said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and
true. And he said to me, it is done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life
without payment. To one who conquers will have
this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
This is the end of the story for all who are in Christ Jesus.
The light overcomes the darkness, the city of God is
restored, and the people of God are transformed.
And in the end God wins. All evil and wickedness and sin
and pain and sorrow and even death itself will be defeated
forever. And God says, and in revelation
he says, write these things down, for this is trustworthy.
This is true, and He will hasten to make it be.
The Lord calls on His people to live in the midst of the present
darkness and hardship that they endure to to know these things
about the future, to think about them to to meditate upon them,
to immerse ourselves in these truths so that they can we can
then persevere in the present. So in the midst of the the
darkness now, the hardship, the temptation, the challenges, the,
the persecution, the weight of the, the fallenness of this
world, the weight of our own sin, we can keep going,
persevere and loving and faithful walking with the Lord
resurrection hope is real for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Secondly, do you know the Holy One of Israel?
Do you know the Holy One of Israel?
These words that we're reading in Isaiah 60 and Revelation
chapter 1, these, these words of resurrection hope about the
glorious and light filled future.
You, you have to understand that these words are only words of
hope and encouragement for those who know the Lord, for those who
know the Holy One of Israel. That's one of Isaiah's favorite
titles for the Lord God Almighty.
He uses it twice here in Isaiah chapter 60.
So we have to ask the question, do you know the Holy One of
Israel? Do you know the Lord?
And not just do you know about the Lord, Do you know the Lord
personally? Are you in a relationship with
the Lord? Are you in a relationship with
Jesus? Have you put your faith in him?
Are you walking with the Lord? All of these wonderfully
encouraging and hope filled words about the future, they're
only true for those who know the Holy One of the Lord.
If if you don't know the Holy One of Israel, the picture, the
picture that the Bible gives of what is coming is just the
opposite of what we read here in these verses.
It's eternal separation from the light and the glory of the Lord,
eternal darkness and torment. The Bible tells us that everyone
who has everybody has fallen short of the standard of of God,
His standard of perfect and personal obedience to every part
of His word. Everyone has sinned, we are
told, and rebelled against the Creator.
In order to have the future like the one that is described here
in Isaiah 60 or Revelation 21, our sins have to be paid for.
There are only two ways that that can be done.
Either we have to pay for our own sins for all eternity in
hell, or someone else can pay them for us.
But there's only one person who has ever lived who is qualified
to pay the debt of our sin. Only one person has lived a life
of perfect and personal love and obedience to God, and that
person is the Lord Jesus Christ. After living a life of loving
obedience, He went to the cross and was crucified.
He gave His life to pay for the sins of His people.
He was He, He died, He was buried, and on the third day He
rose from the grave and resurrected.
And because of his resurrection, He secured this glorious future
for His people. To every person who admits that
they are a Sinner, that they are in need of a Saviour and they
trust that Jesus is that Saviour and put their faith in Him, they
believe in Him, Their sins are paid for and this glorious
future is theirs. So the question remains for us
today. Do you know the Holy One of
Israel? Are you in a relationship with
the Lord God Almighty, with the Lord Jesus Christ?
If not, let today, Easter Sunday be that day. 3rd and lastly, a
question for all of us. Do the nation's see our light?
Did you hear that wording in Isaiah 60?
If you look back in chapter 16, verses 2 and three, and verse 5.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness to
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 down in verse 5.
Then you shall see and be radiant.
Your heart shall thrill and exalt, because the abundance of
the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the nations shall
come to you now. While this picture is ultimately
about something that will happen in the future, there's still
elements of truth to this now. I mean, remember what Jesus said
in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5.
He said to his disciples, his followers in the same way, Let
your light shine before others so that they may see your good
works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Only God can draw people to his light and glory, but He gives
his people the blessing and the privilege of being the means by
which he does that. The Lord calls his people to be
light in the midst of darkness. Through our words and our deeds
and our good works, we are to tell people the good news of the
gospel, and we are to live as an example of what it looks like to
walk with Jesus. We're to let the light of the
Lord's grace and truth shine brightly through us to those
around us. Do the nations see your light?
We can shine the Lord's light in all kinds of ways.
We can do that through our art. We can do that in our vocations
as students. We can do it with our children
and grandchildren. We can take the light of God's
truth and grace to the people of Crow Creek.
We can do it with our neighbors, with people that we don't even
know, at the store, the gas station.
What is one way that you can intentionally shine the light of
God's grace and truth to the people this week?
Just one way. It's not a rhetorical question.
Think about it. Is there one way that this week
you can be the means by which God's light shines, His grace
and His truth shine. People see it.
Pray for that opportunity, Look for it, and when you see it,
seize the opportunity. Let's pray together.