Arise, Shine, for Your Light Has Come

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

Isaiah 60 · chapter mention

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

Isaiah 60 · chapter mention

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.

Isaiah 60 · chapter mention

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

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

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.

Isaiah 60 · chapter mention

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.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

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.