WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:05.040 I encourage you to take your Bible and turn with me over to Isaiah chapter 2. 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:09.279 If you don't have a Bible, you can find one in the pew there in front of you. 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:16.960 And by turning to page 601, 601, we'll get to Isaiah chapter 2. 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:26.239 Have you ever desired to be part of something that's beyond and outside your normal experience? 00:00:26.239 --> 00:00:28.640 Of course. 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:30.640 All of us do. 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:39.439 We find glimpses of things outside and beyond our normal day, and some of the things that are common to our experiences now. 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:56.399 Our team perhaps winning the Super Bowl, or the rush of a standing ovation at the end of a concert, or even the shared experience of a natural disaster brings us together with our neighbors like we never have had before. 00:00:56.399 --> 00:01:04.719 All of this speaks about something about us that all of us long for transcendence. 00:01:04.719 --> 00:01:08.480 We long for something that's above and beyond the ordinary. 00:01:08.480 --> 00:01:22.239 That woven inside each of us is a desire for something more, a crave to be part of something bigger, something greater, something more profound than our regular every day. 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:42.480 We also strive for significance, a recognition that our lives, whether it's widely known or little known, actually carry a weight, that they our lives mean something, that we matter, that we count, that we're making a difference somewhere. 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:51.760 And we also long for community, to have a shared experience with others in a context of love and acceptance. 00:01:51.760 --> 00:02:05.519 Friday night, sorry, Yankees fans, but Friday night the LA Dodger fans got to experience a little bit of that transcendence and significance and community. 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:14.240 And they did so when Freddie Freeman smacked a piece of wood against a leather ball traveling at him at 93 miles an hour. 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:19.599 With the crack of his bat, Freeman made a game-winning hit. 00:02:19.599 --> 00:02:22.400 But it was more than that. 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:24.960 It was more than that. 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:39.039 Freddie Freeman's hit in the bottom of the 10th inning with two outs, the Dodgers down by a run, was Major League Baseball's first ever walk-off grand slim in World Series history. 00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:49.199 Never in the previous 693 games of the 119 World Series matchups had that ever happened. 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:52.800 That's transcendence in sport. 00:02:52.800 --> 00:03:02.000 The LA Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that swing might be the greatest baseball moment I've ever witnessed. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:05.039 And I've witnessed some great ones. 00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:08.719 There's also significance in this moment. 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:15.280 Freddie Freeman in a live televised conference that I saw after the game said this. 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:21.439 He said, those are the kind of things when you're five years old with your two older brothers and you're playing wiffle ball in the backyard. 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:24.560 The scenario of scenarios you kind of dream about. 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:29.039 Bases loaded, two outs in a World Series game. 00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:36.560 And for it to actually happen, to hit a home run and walk it off and give us a one-nothing lead. 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:39.199 That's as good as it gets right there. 00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:50.080 The significance of that moment he shared with his father, who he said was always there with him, always playing with him. 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:52.400 And then there's the community. 00:03:52.400 --> 00:04:05.680 In Dodgers Stadium Friday night, all those Los Angeles Dodgers fans were screaming, and there was a palpable sense of us and we in the shared excitement and celebration. 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:08.800 Even New Yorkers had to acknowledge it. 00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:18.879 New York Times sports writer Jason Stark put it this way: history is an amazing thing to make, and it's a breathtaking thing to watch. 00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:23.920 A stadium rattles until it awakens every Richter scale in Southern California. 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:31.839 A walk-off hero jumps on home plate and disappears into a sea of hugs and laughs and tears of joy. 00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:40.720 A baseball game, transcendence, significance, community. 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:47.120 We were made for those things, literally made for those things. 00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:53.680 When God made Adam and Eve, he made them as image bearers in the likeness of himself. 00:04:53.680 --> 00:05:03.600 God formed Adam and had all the animals pass in front of him and tasked him with naming each of them. 00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:12.319 And that moment Adam exercised his image of God dominion over the other created things. 00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:15.120 But he also discovered something there. 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:19.439 He discovered he was more than just the pinnacle of the animal kingdom. 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:25.199 He was unique, he was different, he was above all of those things. 00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:31.920 There was nothing in the animal kingdom that could match him or be a companion for him. 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:36.639 Adam was made in the image of God like nothing else. 00:05:36.639 --> 00:05:42.240 And only someone else, also bearing the likeness of God, could be his companion. 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:47.439 And so God crafted Eve and gave them to one another. 00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:53.279 We were born for transcendence, but we were also born for significance. 00:05:53.279 --> 00:06:04.480 These two were put into the garden not so they could just simply get along and survive or be satisfied with the things that they were there to enjoy. 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:14.560 They were given a responsibility, a vision, and a commission that would take them beyond the borders of their own lives and beyond the borders of their own needs and concerns. 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:21.040 They were given wonderful capacities to do things that no other creature could do. 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:24.399 I say this to my dogs all the time. 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:27.040 I've got a thumb, you don't. 00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:30.160 I've got abilities, you don't. 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:33.279 My dog just says, Would you just shut up and feed me? 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:39.279 But also community, community. 00:06:39.279 --> 00:07:11.920 All of that existence as image bearers and all the responsibilities of increasing the garden around the world that was made was all to be done within the context of love and acceptance, in a harmonious relationship with God and humanity, of man and wife, of person to person as it increased, of all of us with the created things, transcendence, significance, community. 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:16.399 These are all central to our original design as humanity. 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:23.759 But in Isaiah chapter two, we see something very, very different. 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:32.480 It seems for Israel in Isaiah's day, all those things are gone and perhaps gone forever. 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:35.120 Oh, they could never be forgotten. 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:38.800 Those elements reside within all of our souls. 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:46.560 But this profound sense of perfect uniqueness and purpose and togetherness before a holy God, that was gone. 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:53.360 And in its place, people tried to fill the void with poor substitutes. 00:07:53.360 --> 00:08:05.680 The very things that, if perpetuated, would not only leave them empty and ruinous and rob them of the grandeur of godliness, but would also lead to their eternal destruction. 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:09.040 Take a look at some of these verses. 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:14.879 They sought to find significance in money in Isaiah 2, 7a. 00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:20.399 There's no limit to their treasures. 00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:25.759 They sought to find meaning in being powerful. 00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:30.720 7b, their land is full of horses, and there's no limit to their chariots. 00:08:30.720 --> 00:08:35.279 They were looking for things outside their normal experience. 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:41.679 Verse 6, they're full of divination from the East and fortune tellers like the Philistines. 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:44.799 They wanted to be in touch with the other world. 00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:49.279 And they welcomed community by forming alliances with other nations. 00:08:49.279 --> 00:08:53.360 In verse 6, they're in league with foreigners. 00:08:53.360 --> 00:09:14.159 And as an example of just how far down they've gone, Isaiah portrays Judah in this deep state of blind humiliation, forming gods by the craft of their own hands, and bowing down to them as if the stone and the wood that they had carved carried more significance than they did. 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:18.480 Verse 8 and 9, their lands full of worthless idols. 00:09:18.480 --> 00:09:24.080 They worship the work of their hands, what their fingers have made. 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:29.120 So humanity is brought low, and each person is humbled. 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:34.879 What is God going to do with this massive humanity? 00:09:34.879 --> 00:09:54.000 That not only has lost the grandeur of godliness, lost all of our transcendence and our significance, lost our union and communion with the holy God, but have now chased after things that are nothing but empty, worthless, and even rebellious. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:58.879 Isaiah tells us. 00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:13.440 He tells us that there's coming a day when God will rip down this poorly constructed facade of significance and power that humanity has struck constructed in their prideful rebellion against the Creator. 00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:15.519 Verse 11. 00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:20.879 The pride of mankind will be humbled, and human loftiness will be brought low. 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:24.480 The Lord alone will be exalted on that day. 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:31.600 A day belonging to the Lord of armies is coming against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up. 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:33.600 It will be humbled. 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:35.120 Verse 17. 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:39.840 The pride of mankind will be brought low, and human loftiness will be humbled. 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:43.279 The Lord alone will be exalted on that day. 00:10:43.279 --> 00:10:44.879 Verse 20. 00:10:44.879 --> 00:10:53.279 On that day people will throw their worthless idols of silver and gold, which they made to worship to the moles and to the bats. 00:10:53.279 --> 00:10:57.840 What a disturbing day that is. 00:10:57.840 --> 00:11:04.000 A disturbing day of the destruction of disobedient rebels. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:20.960 And so worthy are they of this rejection that Isaiah interjects with a demanding request of God in verse nine, which, when you read it, should shake us to the core. 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:30.159 Humanity is brought low, and each person is humbled, and he interjects, do not forgive them. 00:11:30.159 --> 00:11:36.879 There appears to be no hope. 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:42.960 There appears to be no hope for Judah. 00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:53.440 That is, unless, unless God has plans and a future beyond this terrible current situation. 00:11:53.440 --> 00:12:34.639 Hear this just like you've never heard it before, is what Isaiah is saying here. 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:45.360 And in profound contrast to the portrayal of Jerusalem in chapter one, here we see what the Lord wants to do with Judah and Jerusalem. 00:12:45.360 --> 00:13:08.879 And to our shock and to our surprise, God has intentions of mercy and grace to these people who have chased after wealth, who've chased after power, who've chased after divination, who've chased after foreign alliances, and who have bound themselves down to idols made from their own hands. 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:19.919 His intention is to treat these people and all nations with honor and privilege. 00:13:19.919 --> 00:13:23.919 Take a look at verses two to five. 00:13:23.919 --> 00:13:32.639 In the last days the mountain of the Lord's house will be established at the top of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills. 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:41.759 All nations will stream to it, and many peoples will come and say, Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:46.639 He will teach us about his ways, so that we may walk in his paths. 00:13:46.639 --> 00:13:51.200 For instruction will go out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:56.159 He will settle disputes among the nations and provide arbitration for many peoples. 00:13:56.159 --> 00:14:01.039 They will beat their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:07.840 Nation will not take up sword against nation, and they will never again train for war. 00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:39.919 This morning I want us to examine this remarkable passage and see its importance, its importance for us today, and how it speaks of God's intentions to restore humanity to our original design and to bring us into the experiences that we lost in our sinful rebellion, to bring us back to transcendence, to bring us back to significance, and to bring us into a community that we've all longed to be a part of. 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:46.720 Before we go deeper into this passage, there are a couple things that I need to note here for our understanding. 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:52.320 The first of all is this introductory phrase that we find in verse 2. 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:55.120 In the last days. 00:14:55.120 --> 00:14:57.360 In the last days. 00:14:57.360 --> 00:15:08.240 This expression is not projecting us necessarily to what's going to happen at the very end of human history as we know it. 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:14.320 This is an expression that is often simply pointing to a future time. 00:15:14.320 --> 00:15:25.360 And its built-in imprecision is purposeful to tell us about a time when things will not be as they presently are. 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:29.200 And it can refer simply to things that are just going to happen later. 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:38.639 For example, in Genesis 49 and verse 1, Jacob uses this phrase in his pronouncements about his sons and their lineage in the future. 00:15:38.639 --> 00:15:46.879 And some of that future moves to the time of the judges, some of it moves to the time of David, some of it moves to the time of Christ himself. 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:50.559 In the last days could be any one of those seasons. 00:15:50.559 --> 00:16:02.320 Deuteronomy 31 and 20, verse 29, Moses uses that phrase to speak of the apostasy that would come after his death. 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:15.919 And in the New Testament, in the last days is a phrase that has reference to the time in which we live now between the resurrection and the return of Christ. 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:17.759 The last days. 00:16:17.759 --> 00:18:37.680 And that God himself will arbitrate all of the issues of humankind. 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:51.039 And that in this transformation, people will take their weaponry of war and turn it into implements of agricultural harvesting. 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:55.839 And that war itself will be brought to an end. 00:18:55.839 --> 00:19:00.880 And people will no longer go to basic military training. 00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:03.359 They will no longer train for war. 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:16.480 When we come into prophetic literature, like the book of Isaiah, we come into a place where poetry reigns, where poetry reigns. 00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:28.720 And poetry gives us, as we know, images that provoke strong emotions and describe things beyond the range of our typical normal language. 00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:39.519 If I said to someone, I care a lot about you, I would be saying a true statement. 00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:46.640 If I said to them, you're one in a million, I would be using figurative language. 00:19:46.640 --> 00:20:01.279 But if I said among the endless grains of sand, you're the gem that glitters, the one the tide could not sweep away, you think, well, he's obviously not just asking for directions. 00:20:01.279 --> 00:20:11.920 But then what if I said, you're not just part of the world's vastness, you're the sparkle that turns it into magic. 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:15.920 That's only something Royal gets to hear. 00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:19.519 Why? 00:20:19.519 --> 00:20:21.759 It's poetry, right? 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:23.599 It's poetry. 00:20:23.599 --> 00:20:31.039 It speaks emotionally, and it goes into us deeper. 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:34.799 We find that kind of imagery all over scripture. 00:20:34.799 --> 00:20:38.000 Some of it we understand, some of it we don't. 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:46.799 I mean, none of us really understand why Solomon would tell a woman, you've got hair like a flock of goats, you know. 00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:54.559 Or that your teeth are like sheep that have just been shorn. 00:20:54.559 --> 00:20:59.119 Well, unless you're a New Zealander, maybe that would be okay. 00:20:59.119 --> 00:21:02.480 Or that your neck is like the Tower of David. 00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:12.640 And she's looking up, going, I've always been a little, well, a little embarrassed by my neck, but you've just really made it a problem. 00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:21.279 When we read these things, we understand they evoke emotion, that they're poetic. 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:24.480 Isaiah's prophecies do that. 00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:30.000 In Isaiah 52, we don't expect a literal fulfillment of this. 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:33.680 He says, You will indeed go out with joy and be peacefully guided. 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:40.160 The mountains and the hills will break into singing before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:46.240 We're not going to be walking down a pathway accompanied by the forest. 00:21:46.240 --> 00:21:51.119 But there's something there that's rich and that's deep. 00:21:51.119 --> 00:22:06.720 And so the Old Testament prophets describe a glorious future, and Isaiah here describes a glorious future that's both familiar and yet unknown to the people in Judah and Jerusalem of his day. 00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:12.720 Something they could understand, but yet beyond their comprehension. 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:17.519 Something veiled that they couldn't quite grasp. 00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:28.960 So God speaks to them within this framework, this world of language, poetry, to build their faith and to raise their expectations. 00:22:28.960 --> 00:22:44.079 He takes these familiar institutions and he idealizes them in this imagery and speaks of the reality beyond their present day that's going to be more glorious than they can imagine. 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:51.039 I want us to break down this section in verses two to five in two little clusters. 00:22:51.039 --> 00:22:59.920 The first cluster will look at the aspects of the imagery of the place, and then the second cluster will be the imagery of the people. 00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:12.799 And in this first cluster, speaking about the place, we find the focus is in Jerusalem, and particularly the Temple Mount and the Temple itself. 00:23:12.799 --> 00:23:20.799 And the first thing that we notice in verse 2 is the elevation of the Temple Mount. 00:23:20.799 --> 00:23:31.279 That the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. 00:23:31.279 --> 00:23:42.240 The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is not the highest place around. 00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:52.400 It's tall, it reaches a peak of about 2,400 and some change feet above sea level, but it isn't the highest peak. 00:23:52.400 --> 00:24:05.759 The Mount of Olives, right next to it, is about 250 feet higher than it, and Mount Scopus, which lies to the north, is nearly 300 feet higher than it in elevation. 00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:10.559 And even the Mount of Corruption to the south is higher. 00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:16.559 So in its immediate vicinity, the Temple Mount is not higher than all the hills around. 00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:18.400 It just isn't. 00:24:18.400 --> 00:24:31.759 And when we read Isaiah chapter 2, we're not reading here some sort of tectonic upheaval in which the Temple Mount is physically lifted up above the rest of the hills around it. 00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:34.480 No, this is poetry. 00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:36.799 This is poetry. 00:24:36.799 --> 00:24:46.000 We're discovering something far more significant than the fact that we just have to change the figures on our on our maps. 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:54.880 When we read the Old Testament, we discover that the high places were places of worship. 00:24:54.880 --> 00:25:02.960 Israel had one place where they were to worship centrally, a place that was chosen by God. 00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:26.559 But despite all of that, Israel tended to worship in a lot of other places, a lot of other high places, inconsistent with what God told them to do, but also leading them to the temptation of joining into the worship of other gods on the high places where other people worshiped. 00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:37.519 And here in this passage of scripture, God is promising to raise his mountain above all the other mountains. 00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:46.480 In other words, to make it such that his worship is the supreme worship above all for all people. 00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:49.200 In that image. 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:53.599 And then there is the exaltation of the temple. 00:25:53.599 --> 00:26:03.839 In the last days, the mountain of the Lord's house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. 00:26:03.839 --> 00:26:08.160 There is this exaltation of the temple itself. 00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:15.759 Now the temple is for us the meeting place between God and humanity. 00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:27.119 And here we see the exaltation of the temple being figuring the presence of God Himself, where people will meet with Him. 00:26:27.119 --> 00:26:41.119 And this temple in Jerusalem is an earthly representation of God's house, the place where he dwells, where he is enthroned as the real king of the universe. 00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:51.519 And then another aspect of this first cluster that talks about the place begins to move us toward the people that we'll look at in the second cluster. 00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:58.160 Many peoples will come and say, Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. 00:26:58.160 --> 00:27:12.799 There is this focus on this area, not only by the people of Israel, the people of Judah and Jerusalem, but the nations and the peoples themselves. 00:27:12.799 --> 00:27:28.400 That this transformation of Jerusalem is not just an end of itself and not just for the people of that city or of that area, but a place in which will be flowing all of the nations. 00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:37.519 The centrality of this place is in view, and it is the eye of every people. 00:27:37.519 --> 00:27:41.680 Isaiah speaks of this. 00:27:41.680 --> 00:28:48.640 And I will bring all of your brothers from all the nations as a gift to the Lord on horses and chariots and litters and on mules and camels to my holy mountain, Jerusalem. 00:28:48.640 --> 00:29:03.200 This cluster of the place poetically shows us something is going on that's going to bring an exaltation of the Temple Mount. 00:29:03.200 --> 00:29:08.880 It's going to show us an exaltation of the temple itself where God dwells. 00:29:08.880 --> 00:29:13.440 It's going to show us all the people focused on that one place. 00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:17.279 What is this high place? 00:29:17.279 --> 00:29:20.720 What is this God's presence in the temple? 00:29:20.720 --> 00:29:24.400 What is this place of worship, this focus of the people? 00:29:24.400 --> 00:29:28.880 Well, the New Testament tells us exactly what it is. 00:29:28.880 --> 00:29:48.960 Because the New Testament takes up this imagery that Isaiah speaks about here and in so many other places, and so many of the other prophets talk about and brings it into focus on Christ and the gospel and God's people who have come to Jesus Christ. 00:29:48.960 --> 00:29:59.759 The writer of Hebrews in chapter 12 says to them, You have come to Mount Zion, to the city. 00:29:59.759 --> 00:30:25.359 Of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels, a festive gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a judge who is the God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better things than the blood of Abel. 00:30:25.359 --> 00:30:27.920 Where have the New Testament believers come to? 00:30:27.920 --> 00:30:48.319 They've come to the highest of high places, to the heavenly Jerusalem, not just sitting on top of earthly hills, but sitting above all things on earth, to the very abode of God, to the place where the blood of Christ will free you of all guilt. 00:30:48.319 --> 00:30:54.640 Galatians 4, to the Gentiles of Galatia. 00:30:54.640 --> 00:31:07.119 Paul the apostle writes to them, and he says, Jerusalem above is free and is our mother. 00:31:07.119 --> 00:31:20.960 That very exalted place where God dwells, which is above us all, is the very center of our existence. 00:31:20.960 --> 00:31:27.119 Revelation chapter three and verse twelve. 00:31:27.119 --> 00:31:51.279 God's people wrapped up in the imagery of Jerusalem and a high place and a temple where they will bring themselves gladly and remain happily forever. 00:31:51.279 --> 00:31:56.000 Revelation twenty-one, two. 00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:13.519 I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, the high place, the high city, the high temple, the high presence of God. 00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:32.960 These ideas of temple and mountain are all wrapped around the idea of Jesus Christ and the gospel and the people of God being a part of it. 00:32:32.960 --> 00:32:50.799 When we looked at chapter one, we said that all of chapter one was yearning for a future day when the Messiah would come, yearning for that day when our sins, which are as scarlet, would become proclaimed as white as wool. 00:32:50.799 --> 00:32:56.079 And we said that we find that fulfillment in Jesus' death. 00:32:56.079 --> 00:33:09.680 This forgiveness that Isaiah is grasping to understand and longing to see, materialized and realized, is found in these pictures of crimson and scarlet being turned into wool and snow. 00:33:09.680 --> 00:33:13.920 We know this is Christ who has come to free us. 00:33:13.920 --> 00:33:30.720 And because Christ has come to free us, there's no more Sabbaths, there's no more sacrifices, there's no more priesthood, there's none of those things needed any longer, for the one perfect sacrifice has come and he's come to deliver. 00:33:30.720 --> 00:34:22.880 And so now here in Isaiah chapter 2, this vision of a glorious Zion that sits in the center of the world with all eyes on it speaks about again our Savior, the light of Jesus, who is very God of gods, who is the express image of God, who said on this earth, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again, who says to his people, you are living stones built on the cornerstone, who is Jesus Christ, and you are formed together as a habitation for God to sing out the praises and the excellencies of him who saved us. 00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:35.119 And so while Isaiah talks about a future of an elevated mountain, the gospels tell us very clearly about the need for the elevation of Jesus Christ. 00:34:35.119 --> 00:34:56.719 The book of Acts gives us a picture of the nations being assembled in Jerusalem and hearing a message about one Jesus who sits at the right hand of God, who is issuing forth an edict from there of deliverance. 00:34:56.719 --> 00:35:08.639 The vision of Isaiah 2 is becoming a reality in human existence. 00:35:08.639 --> 00:35:24.559 This picture of gloriousness, of welcome, this picture of this place is found right in Jesus Christ Himself. 00:35:24.559 --> 00:35:28.480 That leads us to cluster two. 00:35:28.480 --> 00:35:34.480 The first cluster talks about the place. 00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:38.400 The second cluster focuses more on the people. 00:35:38.400 --> 00:35:49.840 All nations will stream to it, and many peoples will come and say, Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. 00:35:49.840 --> 00:35:53.840 He will teach us about his way so that we may walk in his paths. 00:35:53.840 --> 00:35:58.480 For instruction will go out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 00:35:58.480 --> 00:36:07.760 Isaiah sees here that Jew and Gentile alike will stream toward God's holy mountain. 00:36:07.760 --> 00:36:09.199 Why? 00:36:09.199 --> 00:36:12.480 What's compelling them to go there? 00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:17.760 They go there because they want to know something about God. 00:36:17.760 --> 00:36:24.239 God will teach them, He will show them how to walk in His path. 00:36:24.239 --> 00:36:27.199 His instructions will come from that place. 00:36:27.199 --> 00:36:30.079 The word of the Lord will be sourced there. 00:36:30.079 --> 00:36:33.199 This is where they find the truth. 00:36:33.199 --> 00:36:44.719 And these people, both Jew and Gentile, need instruction and they desire direction in junctures of life, both mundane and crucial. 00:36:44.719 --> 00:36:53.119 And these people are tired of the false instructions and the faulty directions that they've been given from the culture around them. 00:36:53.119 --> 00:36:54.880 They want the truth. 00:36:54.880 --> 00:36:57.119 They want God's truth. 00:36:57.119 --> 00:37:01.199 And so they set their gaze on the temple of Yahweh. 00:37:01.199 --> 00:37:04.159 They look to the highest mountain around. 00:37:04.159 --> 00:37:11.199 And together, as Jew and Gentile, they become a pilgrim people, moving toward the presence of God Himself. 00:37:11.199 --> 00:37:16.639 And they want to hear, not just with their ears, but also with their hearts. 00:37:16.639 --> 00:37:24.159 And they want God to speak as He is the all-welcoming God who will do things for them that they need. 00:37:24.159 --> 00:37:34.159 And they recognize that God's law is not just the exclusive claim of the people of Israel, but it is for all peoples. 00:37:34.159 --> 00:37:44.800 This idea of the people being gathered for instruction is something the New Testament centers on Christ. 00:37:44.800 --> 00:37:52.480 And Jeremiah speaking about the new covenant. 00:37:52.480 --> 00:38:06.239 One of the promises of the new covenant is this they will not say one to their neighbor, Know the Lord, for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 00:38:06.239 --> 00:38:10.800 In the new covenant, there's a knowledge of God that comes. 00:38:10.800 --> 00:38:19.280 Jesus in John 6 said, It is written in the prophets, they will all be taught by God. 00:38:19.280 --> 00:38:25.199 Everyone who's listened to and learned from the Father comes to me, Jesus said. 00:38:25.199 --> 00:38:25.840 Why? 00:38:25.840 --> 00:38:28.639 Because he's the source of the truth. 00:38:28.639 --> 00:38:36.960 John chapter 3, John the Baptist said, The one who speaks of the heavenly things is the one who's come from the heavenly place. 00:38:36.960 --> 00:38:39.840 He reveals him. 00:38:39.840 --> 00:38:55.039 1 Corinthians 2, Paul said, We speak these things, not words taught by human wisdom, but those things taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. 00:38:55.039 --> 00:39:10.880 To the Thessalonians, Paul wrote about brotherly love, you don't need for me to write to you, because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. 00:39:10.880 --> 00:39:53.760 In Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 20, now that you've come to know Christ, assuming that you've heard about him, and were taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, Isaiah in action, in Jesus Christ, in informing his people about the ways of God, about understanding what love really means, about what taking off the former way of life really means, about finding Christ, the revelation of the invisible God. 00:39:53.760 --> 00:40:18.719 But he goes on in this second cluster, not only to talk about our education of God, but also the establishment of peace, will come there to this very place where he will settle disputes among the nations and provide arbitration for many peoples. 00:40:18.719 --> 00:40:24.320 They will beat their swords into plows and their spears into pruning hooks. 00:40:24.320 --> 00:40:31.039 Nation will not take up the sword against nation, and they will never again train for war. 00:40:31.039 --> 00:40:36.159 Now these war, these words have significance for us who live in New York. 00:40:36.159 --> 00:40:42.559 They're right outside the United Nations building where a blacksmith is beating swords into plowshares, right? 00:40:42.559 --> 00:40:48.559 But the path to peace that the United Nations is talking about is not this. 00:40:48.559 --> 00:40:56.239 Rather than disarmament bringing peace, this passage says peace brings disarmament. 00:40:56.239 --> 00:40:58.639 The peace comes first. 00:40:58.639 --> 00:41:24.000 And God is portrayed here as the direct agent of that peace, bringing judgment, settling disputes at the beginning of verse four, talking about the cessation of war within the hearts of his people, the power of the gospel to break down barriers and to establish peace. 00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:29.280 Where there is strife, there is now the source for peace. 00:41:29.280 --> 00:41:34.159 Where there was once avarance, now there's the place for forgiveness. 00:41:34.159 --> 00:41:41.199 Where there was once prejudice, now there's the place for acceptance in Jesus Christ. 00:41:41.199 --> 00:41:56.239 The people who are taught by God are the people who are taught by God to bring about a realm of peace like this world has never been able to do, and without Christ, we'll never be able to do. 00:41:56.239 --> 00:41:59.840 Just take a look at us. 00:41:59.840 --> 00:42:01.360 Look at all of us. 00:42:01.360 --> 00:42:04.000 We're about as different as we can get. 00:42:04.000 --> 00:42:10.800 We're as mixed in every possible demographic that we could even list out. 00:42:10.800 --> 00:42:16.719 But here we are gathered together because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:42:16.719 --> 00:42:21.840 The world longs for this and they can't achieve it. 00:42:21.840 --> 00:42:33.039 To receive divine instruction is to share in this vision of a coming realm of peace. 00:42:33.039 --> 00:42:36.719 And it's already inaugurated now. 00:42:36.719 --> 00:42:42.800 Having been justified by faith, you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:42:42.800 --> 00:42:43.760 Right? 00:42:43.760 --> 00:42:49.599 And may the peace of God settle your hearts and fix your minds. 00:42:49.599 --> 00:42:55.119 And so, brothers and sisters, have peace with one another. 00:42:55.119 --> 00:43:03.360 It is because our hearts are already made at peace with the Holy God that we can begin to have peace with sinful people. 00:43:03.360 --> 00:43:07.360 It's wondrous. 00:43:07.360 --> 00:43:18.960 Yes, when we come to know Jesus, peace follows. 00:43:18.960 --> 00:43:27.199 And it could be in the smallest of ways, in seemingly uncertain days, the most feeble of efforts. 00:43:27.199 --> 00:43:53.199 But there is within all of God's people, those who redeemed through Jesus Christ, a blossoming of love, a growing of forgiveness that turns squabbles and factions into harmonious communities, in families and in churches, and even as we become peacemakers in this world. 00:43:53.199 --> 00:43:59.199 This is why Jesus described his children: Blessed are the peacemakers. 00:43:59.199 --> 00:44:03.039 Isaiah's vision leaves room for hope. 00:44:03.039 --> 00:44:06.239 These days have begun, but they're not finished yet. 00:44:06.239 --> 00:44:25.599 And there'll be more and more of our putting away of hypocrisy and putting away of injustice, when our peace will be more than just patchy and small, that he will continue to work until the day comes when war will be no more and peace will flow like a river. 00:44:25.599 --> 00:44:31.599 Isaiah holds that vision up as true. 00:44:31.599 --> 00:44:34.480 He takes us to a mountain. 00:44:34.480 --> 00:44:39.599 He shows us there what our hearts are really longing for. 00:44:39.599 --> 00:44:42.800 He shows us that God is there. 00:44:42.800 --> 00:44:46.239 He shows us that God's initiative is there. 00:44:46.239 --> 00:44:54.639 And he shows us that God intends to bring his people into an experience that they've yet to ever know. 00:44:54.639 --> 00:45:03.599 An experience of equity and of community and of justice and of love and of peace. 00:45:03.599 --> 00:45:10.880 In that place that he has established that is higher than all the other places around. 00:45:10.880 --> 00:45:21.119 And that place is Christ who broke into the third heaven and sits at the right hand of the majesty on high. 00:45:21.119 --> 00:45:32.000 Isaiah speaks of that time when we'll once again know transcendence and significance and community. 00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:41.039 That we'll quit in that day getting by with the scraps and remembrances of special experiences. 00:45:41.039 --> 00:45:57.440 That day when God's presence will be perfectly manifest, when his house will be eternally established, when we will always have the instruction of God, and peace will reign. 00:45:57.440 --> 00:46:00.719 Revelation chapter 21. 00:46:00.719 --> 00:46:10.480 I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 00:46:10.480 --> 00:46:19.360 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. 00:46:19.360 --> 00:46:32.559 That's where we look, that's where we stream, and that's where we find our transcendence and our significance and our community. 00:46:32.559 --> 00:46:43.280 This picture of unity, this picture of justice, this picture of openness and oneness in the divine way of peace. 00:46:43.280 --> 00:46:50.320 It speaks to our deepest hopes and all of our longings. 00:46:50.320 --> 00:46:57.760 Hear the exhortation in verse five. 00:46:57.760 --> 00:47:01.119 House of Jacob, come. 00:47:01.119 --> 00:47:06.960 Let's walk in the Lord's light. 00:47:06.960 --> 00:47:15.519 This chapter is filled with two seemingly irreconcilable futures. 00:47:15.519 --> 00:47:27.440 On that day will be a day when human pride is crushed, and in the last days will come an elevated place of acceptance. 00:47:27.440 --> 00:47:38.159 And where your destiny lies is brought to bear in this exhortation. 00:47:38.159 --> 00:47:40.159 Come. 00:47:40.159 --> 00:47:50.079 And then look at the last verse of the chapter. 00:47:50.079 --> 00:48:00.079 Put no more trust in a mere human who only has only the breath in his nostrils. 00:48:00.079 --> 00:48:02.400 What is he really worth? 00:48:02.400 --> 00:48:14.400 To begin to walk in the ways of the light of the Lord that verse 5 talks about means quit, first of all, quit trusting yourself. 00:48:14.400 --> 00:48:17.840 Because you are just a mere mortal. 00:48:17.840 --> 00:48:20.000 That's what we are. 00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:46.960 And whatever constructs of transcendence and significance and community that we think we can obtain by way of our prideful, arrogant rebellion against God, to invest it in money, to invest it in spiritual activity, to invest it in weaponry of power, to invest it in alliances with others. 00:48:46.960 --> 00:48:58.800 We're really doing nothing more but constructing wood and stone idols, things that we've made with our own hands and saying they're what gives us significance. 00:48:58.800 --> 00:49:13.599 Turn away from those things and turn to the living God who can bring you into a realm like you've never known before, where words fail us to even begin to describe. 00:49:13.599 --> 00:49:15.280 Let's pray. 00:49:15.280 --> 00:49:39.519 Do not forgive them. 00:49:39.519 --> 00:49:50.559 You've got bigger plans than that. 00:49:50.559 --> 00:50:27.360 You've got plans that cause all of us to stop our voices and to stand in awe, in wonder and puzzlement, that you, the holy God, who have been offended by our actions, would be so kind and so gracious and so full of love that you would open up a place into your presence to the very people that have dishonored you. 00:50:27.360 --> 00:50:33.119 Lord, we need to hear that message. 00:50:33.119 --> 00:50:44.079 And I pray for each and every one of us in this room that we would not pass it by without acknowledging our need of it and without ensuring our participation in it. 00:50:44.079 --> 00:50:55.760 That we would come to that place, Jesus Christ, who is high and exalted above all, and find in him everything that we need. 00:50:55.760 --> 00:51:03.599 And Lord, I pray that we might continue to be those who help others stream to that holy mountain. 00:51:03.599 --> 00:51:06.639 Come, come with us. 00:51:06.639 --> 00:51:09.599 Let us walk in the light of the Lord. 00:51:09.599 --> 00:51:12.000 And we pray this in Christ's name. 00:51:12.000 --> 00:51:12.960 Amen.