Doug McMasters: Sacred Bible in your book of Isaiah, the book of Isaiah and chapter 60, chapter 60.
Doug McMasters: You don't have a Bible, there's Bibles in the pew in front of you, and you can take one of those.
Doug McMasters: And if you don't have a Bible, you can have one of those and take it with you home as our gift.
Doug McMasters: But in those pew Bibles, around page 650, you'll get close to Isaiah chapter 60.
Doug McMasters: I don't have the exact page in front of me, but right around page 650, you'll get there.
Doug McMasters: In the 16th century, reformers in Geneva adopted a motto that summed up their hope and their conviction.
Doug McMasters: And that motto in Latin, post tenebrus lux, means after darkness, light.
Doug McMasters: And they carved those words on church walls and they carried those words about in their heart.
Doug McMasters: Because they believed that after centuries of darkness, God had brought the dawn of the light of the gospel once again.
Doug McMasters: After darkness, light.
Doug McMasters: That he had once again pierced the world's darkness with the light of the gospel.
Doug McMasters: But post-tenebris looks is not just a symbol for a past day, it's emblematic of what God does.
Doug McMasters: The world might seem dark, but God always breaks through with light.
Doug McMasters: And this is the story that we've just celebrated by way of Christmas.
Doug McMasters: After centuries of waiting, after generations of longing, after the silence of exile and the shadow of sin, Christmas tells us that the light is broken in, that the word has become flesh, that Christ has been born, that the dawn has come.
Doug McMasters: And the Christmas tells us that that light is not just a feeling, a religious sentiment.
Doug McMasters: It's a person.
Doug McMasters: That light is Christ, that eternal Son who stepped into our darkness and who took on our flesh, and that entered into our world, and that bore our night, so that the dawn of his light might shine in our soul.
Doug McMasters: John put it this way in John chapter 1: In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
Doug McMasters: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Doug McMasters: John is telling us that the light that Isaiah promised is not a distant glow, but a present reality, the very light of God Himself wrapped in human flesh.
Doug McMasters: And so Christmas.
Doug McMasters: Christmas is not just a story of a baby in a manger, it's a story of God breaking into our world, invading it, and doing something wonderful, astounding, miraculous.
Doug McMasters: The incarnation.
Doug McMasters: But the world still feels like it's in darkness.
Doug McMasters: The headings that we read every day, they haven't changed.
Doug McMasters: The griefs that we carried into December still lay heavily on our heart.
Doug McMasters: They haven't magically lifted.
Doug McMasters: The ache of our waiting, of our longings, of our wondering.
Doug McMasters: They're still with us.
Doug McMasters: So what does it mean to us now that the light has come?
Doug McMasters: Well, Isaiah helps us answer that question.
Doug McMasters: In Isaiah chapter 60, he speaks to a people who know darkness, who have felt the weight of sin and exile.
Doug McMasters: And he tells them that God is a God who keeps his promises.
Doug McMasters: And we'll look at this in chapter 59 and verse 21.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah spoke these words to Israel, a people in exile, a people who were, well, covenantly faithless and unfaithful and were bearing covenant judgment.
Doug McMasters: But he lifts up their eyes and shows them something new that they are to arise because their light has come.
Doug McMasters: And so Isaiah chapter 60, and we'll begin in verse 21 of Isaiah 59, so I mean that verse also.
Doug McMasters: But Isaiah takes us on a journey.
Doug McMasters: He takes us on a journey from the whispers of light into the dawning of the day, into the recognition that that sun that rose will never set.
Doug McMasters: It'll be an eternal day, forever.
Doug McMasters: Because Christmas is not the end of the story.
Doug McMasters: It's actually just the beginning.
Doug McMasters: The incarnation is the dawn of God's light, the beginning of the fulfillment of promises He made long ago, and the opening up of a new horizon that will never see the sun set on it.
Doug McMasters: So let's follow this journey as we go through this passage.
Doug McMasters: Let's see this never-ending light as it moves from promise to fulfillment.
Doug McMasters: And let's understand what it means for us after Christmas.
Doug McMasters: The first point I want us to understand is that God's promises, God's covenant-keeping promises, secure his people.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah lifts our eyes toward the dawning horizon of Isaiah 59, verse 21.
Doug McMasters: And let's look at it with this question: Where does God begin this hope?
Doug McMasters: What is the first truth that God wants his people to understand when he does bring in the fact that the light is going to break through?
Doug McMasters: Verse 21 of Isaiah 59.
Doug McMasters: As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord, my spirit who is upon you, and my words that I've put in your mouth, they will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of your children's children from now on and forever, says the Lord.
Doug McMasters: Now, as we've noticed over the past two weeks, Isaiah 59 is a heavy chapter.
Doug McMasters: It's heavy with darkness.
Doug McMasters: The truth is stumbled, justice is turned back, sin has separated people from God, and even those who stand from for righteousness are oppressed.
Doug McMasters: Prophet in Isaiah 59 paints a picture of moral collapse.
Doug McMasters: He paints a picture of spiritual helplessness.
Doug McMasters: The people here are not just merely in darkness, they've caused the darkness.
Doug McMasters: They've contributed more and more to that darkness.
Doug McMasters: Their covenant breaking has brought them to this very point.
Doug McMasters: And it feels hopeless.
Doug McMasters: But right at the end of this chapter, right at the smack end of it, God speaks and he says, As for me, my covenant is with them.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah doesn't start with us.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't start with our response.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't start with our repentance.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't start with our faith.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't start with us at all.
Doug McMasters: He starts with God.
Doug McMasters: And before he ever says, like we'll see in verse 1 of chapter 60, arise and shine, before he even gets to those words, he wants to anchor our hearts in God's faithfulness to his promises that makes rising possible.
Doug McMasters: You see, the approaching dawn that we'll look at in verse 1 of chapter 60 is the result of chapter 59 and verse 21.
Doug McMasters: God is faithful.
Doug McMasters: Israel may be faithless, but God is here putting the stamp of his person on this verse, and he's saying, You may be faithless, but I am not.
Doug McMasters: I am not.
Doug McMasters: Their covenant breaking is not going to cancel God's covenant-keeping ability.
Doug McMasters: His spirit, as he says here in verse 59 or 21, his spirit will remain, his word will endure, because his promises stand forever.
Doug McMasters: And so he's telling us that this dawn that we're about to discover doesn't begin with human repentance and God's response to that, but with divine initiative and resolve.
Doug McMasters: This light breaks in because God wants to bring light to undeserving people.
Doug McMasters: Now Paul picks up this verse in Romans chapter 11, interestingly.
Doug McMasters: This will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.
Doug McMasters: He says it in chapter 11 and verse 27.
Doug McMasters: And Paul here is reading Isaiah's promise with a Christ lens, with a focus on the gospel, that through Jesus and Jesus alone will their sins be removed.
Doug McMasters: And it's no wonder then that we read in the book of Acts, chapter 2, that the Spirit is poured out, because his spirit will not depart, as it says here in Isaiah 59.
Doug McMasters: Because the promise is not dependent on human performance, but on God's initiative.
Doug McMasters: This promise keeping God is going to secure his people.
Doug McMasters: So swimming was a 12 months out-of-the-year thing that we did.
Doug McMasters: But I didn't just toss them into the water and say, you're on your own, start paddling.
Doug McMasters: I held them, taught them how to move, and they were secure in that water, not because they were able, but because their dad held on to them.
Doug McMasters: And here God is telling us that we are held by God's promise-keeping character.
Doug McMasters: What is the significance of what Isaiah is whispering to us here?
Doug McMasters: Well, when you feel the weight of your inconsistencies, when your spiritual strength seems all withered, when your grip on God feels like it's nothing more than trembling weak hands, we know what that's like, right?
Doug McMasters: Your security doesn't rest on how strong you can grip God.
Doug McMasters: It rests on God who keeps his promises.
Doug McMasters: Because he says, As for me, my covenant will be with you.
Doug McMasters: His spirit remains, his word is here, and his promises endure.
Doug McMasters: And before he wants us to know these words of command, arise, shine, he wants us to have imprinted in our soul those words of his promise.
Doug McMasters: So let's move to the second point.
Doug McMasters: Because Isaiah wants us to see the light rising out of this verse.
Doug McMasters: This light that's breaking the darkness, that's anchored in the God who keeps his promises.
Doug McMasters: And that brings us to the second point.
Doug McMasters: Not only does God's covenant-keeping promise secure his people, but God's light breaks the darkness.
Doug McMasters: And if the first word of this dawn is, as for me, then the second word is light is come.
Doug McMasters: And God will not only secure his people, but here we find that he awakens us, that he not only promises to act, but it that he breaks into the darkness with glory.
Doug McMasters: Look at verses one and two.
Doug McMasters: Arise, shine, why?
Doug McMasters: For your light has come, and the glory of the Lord shines over you.
Doug McMasters: For look, darkness will cover the earth, and total darkness the peoples, but the Lord will shine over you, and his glory will appear over you.
Doug McMasters: Now Israel had been living under the heavy shadow of sin and judgment.
Doug McMasters: They knew the darkness of injustice and the darkness of idolatry and the darkness of exile.
Doug McMasters: They knew because it was the darkness of their own sin.
Doug McMasters: But Isaiah is now telling them arise and shine.
Doug McMasters: Why?
Doug McMasters: Because God Himself is breaking in with His light and His glory.
Doug McMasters: The command to Israel here is not to generate light, but to reflect it.
Doug McMasters: Because it's God's light and God's glory.
Doug McMasters: Because this is the dawn of God's activity.
Doug McMasters: Now, what is he talking about here?
Doug McMasters: Well, the New Testament makes it unmistakable what he's talking about.
Doug McMasters: We looked at a passage uh just a few days ago, Christmas Eve service, Luke chapter 2.
Doug McMasters: And there Micah helped us understand that there was this motif of baby, the anticipations of babies being born, until there was one baby born and no longer any more anticipations.
Doug McMasters: Well, there's an older man who goes into the temple.
Doug McMasters: His name is Simeon.
Doug McMasters: And Simeon is guided by the Spirit, and in fact, in just a few short verses, three different times the Spirit is mentioned.
Doug McMasters: Now, to me, that's whispers of Isaiah 59, 21 all over it.
Doug McMasters: But he's told to go to the temple.
Doug McMasters: Why?
Doug McMasters: So that he might see the Lord's salvation before he dies.
Doug McMasters: Not knowing what to expect, other than he knew that God had promised him by the Spirit that before he expired and left this earth, he was going to see God's salvation.
Doug McMasters: And so the Spirit says, Today's the day.
Doug McMasters: Go to the temple.
Doug McMasters: So he goes to the temple and he's look looking around.
Doug McMasters: What is he going to see there?
Doug McMasters: Is he looking at the movement of the priest as they go about their priestly duties?
Doug McMasters: Does he look at the altar with the burning sacrifices?
Doug McMasters: Does he wonder what might be moving behind the curtain?
Doug McMasters: What is he going to see when he goes to the temple?
Doug McMasters: He sees a baby.
Doug McMasters: And in Luke chapter 2 and verse 28, it says that Simeon took up the baby Jesus in his arms.
Doug McMasters: And he says, Now, Master, you can dismiss your servant in peace.
Doug McMasters: As you promised.
Doug McMasters: For my eyes have seen your salvation.
Doug McMasters: And to make it an explicit connection to this passage, you have prepared it before the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory over your people Israel.
Doug McMasters: Do you hear the light and glory statement there?
Doug McMasters: That's Isaiah 60.
Doug McMasters: No wonder it said right after that that Jesus' father and mother were amazed at what he said about the child.
Doug McMasters: Yeah.
Doug McMasters: Yeah, they would be amazed.
Doug McMasters: Matthew, that's Luke.
Doug McMasters: Matthew quotes Isaiah when he says, The people who live in darkness have seen a great light.
Doug McMasters: And he tells us exactly where that light shines.
Doug McMasters: In Galilee, in the ministry of Jesus, in the true light of the world.
Doug McMasters: And if two of the apostles who wrote the gospels isn't enough, let's offer a third.
Doug McMasters: John says, the true light that gives light to everyone coming into the world.
Doug McMasters: And the word became flesh, and the flesh and dwelt among us, and we observed his glory, the glory as of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Doug McMasters: Light and glory.
Doug McMasters: Matthew and Luke and John.
Doug McMasters: And Paul in Ephesians chapter five pulls this passage into the discussion of the church in Ephesus and says, Get up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you.
Doug McMasters: This light that Isaiah is prophesying, it's not just a metaphor.
Doug McMasters: It's not just a mood.
Doug McMasters: It's not just a spiritual feeling.
Doug McMasters: I was lying in bed Christmas morning, and Royal put on this speech.
Doug McMasters: And it, you know, and it talked about, oh, the wonder of Christmas togetherness.
Doug McMasters: And oh, the delight of expressing giving and kindness.
Doug McMasters: And I said, what kind of drivel are you listening to?
Doug McMasters: Well, it was a speech from one of the royal royal members in the UK.
Doug McMasters: And I said, turn that thing off.
Doug McMasters: That was horrible.
Doug McMasters: Christmas is about Christ.
Doug McMasters: Because the incarnation is the dawning.
Doug McMasters: And the ministry of Jesus is the spreading of that dawn.
Doug McMasters: And the resurrection is the blazing light of that dawn.
Doug McMasters: And that light is covering his people right now.
Doug McMasters: Arise, sleeper, and Christ will shine on you.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah's vision begins with Israel, yes, but it doesn't end there.
Doug McMasters: It moves toward the one who is himself the hope of Israel, Jesus.
Doug McMasters: And then it extends into all of those within Jerusalem and Judea who would believe, and into Samaria, and then to the uttermost ends of the earth.
Doug McMasters: But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Doug McMasters: The believing people in Israel are the remnant and radiant people, and that remnant and radiant people become a global people.
Doug McMasters: This is Isaiah's picture.
Doug McMasters: Breaking the power of sin's darkness, dispelling despair, awakening people to new life.
Doug McMasters: And this is why he tells us arise and shine.
Doug McMasters: Now let me say that again strongly.
Doug McMasters: This is not because you feel strong.
Doug McMasters: This is not because you've got it all together.
Doug McMasters: This is not because the world around you has somehow just gotten brighter.
Doug McMasters: It's because your light has come.
Doug McMasters: It's come to you.
Doug McMasters: The command that Isaiah states and that Paul repeats in Ephesians is not a burden.
Doug McMasters: Arise, shine, like the drill sergeant used to yell at me.
Doug McMasters: He didn't say arise.
Doug McMasters: My dad used to say, get up, sunshine.
Doug McMasters: Yeah, well, the drill instructors never said sunshine.
Doug McMasters: They just.
Doug McMasters: And the sun was still an hour away before he told me to get up, too.
Doug McMasters: Matter of fact.
Doug McMasters: This is not a command that's barked out to us.
Doug McMasters: It's an invitation.
Doug McMasters: It's an invitation for us to actually step out of our old patterns of darkness.
Doug McMasters: To step out of those things into the light of the presence of Christ Himself.
Doug McMasters: To reflect His glory in a world that is still dark.
Doug McMasters: To offer hope when the headlines don't have any.
Doug McMasters: And to be joyful even when the circumstances are heavy.
Doug McMasters: This is not shining because we have to try harder and do better.
Doug McMasters: We shine because the one who is light is shining on us.
Doug McMasters: And we're mirrors of that light.
Doug McMasters: And that leads us to point three.
Doug McMasters: And like I said, I was getting ahead of myself a little bit, but this passage is full.
Doug McMasters: Not only is God's covenant-keeping promise secure his people, and not only does God's light break the darkness, but God's light draws the nations.
Doug McMasters: And we'll see this in verses three to five.
Doug McMasters: You see, the light that shines here, that shined in the temple, and Simeon saw it, it doesn't stop there.
Doug McMasters: It spreads.
Doug McMasters: And when it spreads, it draws and it gathers people.
Doug McMasters: And the glory that is awakening Israel, that has come to them from God Himself, is going to be a magnet that draws the nations also.
Doug McMasters: Now let me just pull out some of the phraseology of this term.
Doug McMasters: Nations will come to your light, kings to your shining brightness.
Doug McMasters: Then you will see and be radiant, and your heart will tremble and rejoice, because the riches of the sea will become yours, and the wealth of the nations will come to you.
Doug McMasters: Let me just move through the chapter a little bit.
Doug McMasters: Caravans of camels will cover you.
Doug McMasters: They will carry gold and frankincense and proclaim the praises of the Lord.
Doug McMasters: Your city gates will always be open.
Doug McMasters: They'll never be shut day or night, so that the wealth of the nations might be brought into you.
Doug McMasters: Wow.
Doug McMasters: What a magnificent scene that is.
Doug McMasters: A picture of Zion radiant and bright, beaming the light of the glory of God, with nations streaming toward it.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah sees kings and caravans and treasure and worship all moving from every corner of the globe into this place.
Doug McMasters: And it's not because Israel's won a political victory.
Doug McMasters: This is about God's missional triumph.
Doug McMasters: Because the nations aren't here being conquered, they're being drawn.
Doug McMasters: And they're not being subjugated, they're being summoned.
Doug McMasters: And they're not bringing tribute to a king in just weakness.
Doug McMasters: They're offering the praises of God in worship.
Doug McMasters: This is the global horizon of this promise.
Doug McMasters: Now, because it's Christmas, there's a verse in here that should sound very, very familiar to us.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verse six.
Doug McMasters: Caravans of camels will cover your land.
Doug McMasters: Young camels of Midian and Epha.
Doug McMasters: All of them will come from Sheba.
Doug McMasters: They will carry gold and frankincense and proclaim the praises of the Lord.
Doug McMasters: Matthew picks up this thread and tells us of something that did happen.
Doug McMasters: And he uses this verse with deliberate care.
Doug McMasters: He tells us of the Magi, of these Gentiles from the east who arrive in Jerusalem.
Doug McMasters: And they ask a very poignant question.
Doug McMasters: Where is he who is born king of the Jews?
Doug McMasters: We saw his star at its rising, and we've come to worship him.
Doug McMasters: Matthew's telling us that even at the birth of Jesus, the nations are starting to be drawn to a light.
Doug McMasters: And Matthew describes their arrival, and he says, they opened up their treasures.
Doug McMasters: And what did they give this child?
Doug McMasters: Frankincense and gold and myrrh.
Doug McMasters: Myrrh, an ointment on dead bodies, as a whisper of what was going to happen to this child.
Doug McMasters: But Isaiah 60 and verse 6.
Doug McMasters: Gold and frankincense carried by the Gentiles, offered in worship to the praises of the Lord.
Doug McMasters: And when they don't go to the temple in Jerusalem, they go to Jesus, still held in the arms of his mother.
Doug McMasters: And they say, This is where I need to worship, right here.
Doug McMasters: I need to worship him.
Doug McMasters: You see, Isaiah's vision is cosmic, and Matthew is just offering to us the first fruits of that.
Doug McMasters: That the Magi are the down payment of the global worship that Isaiah foresees here.
Doug McMasters: And the New Testament picks this up in vibrant ways.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah seeing the stream, Matthew showing the first Gentiles kneeling before the child, the book of Acts showing us through the Spirit the formula of a multi-ethnic people of God brought to Christ through the gospel.
Doug McMasters: The book of Revelation showing us that the nations are bringing their glory into the new Jerusalem.
Doug McMasters: Now, with Isaiah 60 ringing in your our ears together, hear these words from Revelation chapter 21, verse 24.
Doug McMasters: The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never close, and they will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.
Doug McMasters: He does all but scream out, pay attention to Isaiah 60, when you look at the new Jerusalem.
Doug McMasters: Because Isaiah's vision doesn't fade, it intensifies.
Doug McMasters: And what began in Bethlehem is culminated in the eternal city.
Doug McMasters: And it's not just a place, it's a people.
Doug McMasters: The radiant Zion is the redeemed community of the people of God.
Doug McMasters: And that's why in Revelation 21 and 22 it talks about the twelve foundations, which are the twelve tribes, and it talks about the twelve gates, which are the twelve apostles.
Doug McMasters: Why?
Doug McMasters: Because the New Jerusalem is an emblem of the gathered people of God, Old and New Testament together.
Doug McMasters: And they don't merely visit this place, their home there.
Doug McMasters: And they don't merely bring their tribute, they are placed in as jewels in the temple itself.
Doug McMasters: The vision speaks directly to us as much as it did to the people in exile who are being prophesied to by Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: That the light that draws the nations is the light we reflect.
Doug McMasters: That the glory that attracts the world is the glory of Christ, come for his people and all peoples.
Doug McMasters: And that the mission of God is not an add-on, it is God's purposeful design to bring the radiance of the light and glory of God to all people.
Doug McMasters: And what does that mean for us?
Doug McMasters: It means our witness matters.
Doug McMasters: It means that our unity in Christ matters.
Doug McMasters: It means our hospitality to undeserving people matters.
Doug McMasters: It means how we work to the glory of God matters.
Doug McMasters: It means our submissiveness in the midst of an oppressive society matters.
Doug McMasters: Because it is those things that God uses to bring, wait, what's happening here to people who don't know the light of Christ?
Doug McMasters: Why do people work like that?
Doug McMasters: Why do people love like that?
Doug McMasters: Why are people so welcoming like that?
Doug McMasters: Why are people so generous like that?
Doug McMasters: Why are they so submissive like that?
Doug McMasters: Why?
Doug McMasters: Because the light of the glory of God has shined on us.
Doug McMasters: That's why.
Doug McMasters: And he means for that light to be global.
Doug McMasters: Let's go to the fourth point.
Doug McMasters: God's covenant-keeping promises secure his people.
Doug McMasters: God's light breaks the darkness.
Doug McMasters: God's light draws the nations, but God's light also vindicates his people.
Doug McMasters: Verse 14.
Doug McMasters: The sons of your oppressors will come and bow down to you.
Doug McMasters: Let me repeat that phrase because I'm going to pick it up again.
Doug McMasters: The sons of your oppressors will come and bow down to you.
Doug McMasters: All who revile you will fall face down at your feet.
Doug McMasters: They will call you the city of the Lord, Zion, the Holy One of Israel.
Doug McMasters: Instead of your being deserted and hated with no one passing through, I will make you an object of eternal pride, a joy from age to age.
Doug McMasters: These are the very ones who, because of their sin, mind you, were mocked, opposed, and oppressed.
Doug McMasters: But the Lord is saying there's coming a day when people will rec bow before you in recognition that God loves you.
Doug McMasters: And it's not a picture of revenge, it's a picture of recognition.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah is not describing Israel that overcomes their enemies by way of force.
Doug McMasters: He's describing God vindicating his people because it will be evident to everyone that God loves them.
Doug McMasters: The vindication here is not about humiliation of others, it's about unveiling in the public God's verdict of these people.
Doug McMasters: Now, this phrase I repeated because I wanted you to hear it and to hear it well, because it's used also in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 9.
Doug McMasters: And Jesus speaks to the church at Philadelphia, a small, weak, marginalized church that's filled with opposers and opposition, who is facing the onslaught of false doctrine.
Doug McMasters: And in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 9, Jesus speaks to the church of Philadelphia, and he says to them, I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I love you.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah is speaking to people in exile, a people who will be vindicated, a people who will be honored, a people in which it will be very apparent that God's favor and love rests on them.
Doug McMasters: And Jesus speaks to a small but faithful church and tells them, I will make them come and bow down before you, and they will know that I love you.
Doug McMasters: This is crucial for us because vindication is not about our achievement, it's about the gift of God.
Doug McMasters: And it's not a result of us pressing forward on cultural influences, it's a result of God of us submitting ourselves to the Lord and of his faithfulness to us through the gospel.
Doug McMasters: And let me say this: this is not even necessarily a historical statement of vindication.
Doug McMasters: It has in its ultimate view an eschatological and eternal expression.
Doug McMasters: Paul uses it in 2 Thessalonians when he says that when the Lord comes, he will come to be glorified in his saints.
Doug McMasters: You see, the world doesn't see the church's honor right at the moment.
Doug McMasters: In fact, anything but.
Doug McMasters: They can't tell me anything, but I know you can.
Doug McMasters: The church, marginalized, opposed, misunderstood, destined for glory.
Doug McMasters: The patterns all over the place.
Doug McMasters: Suffering now, glory later, rejection now, honor later, misunderstanding now, God's vindication later.
Doug McMasters: And Jesus in Revelation 3:9 confirms it.
Doug McMasters: I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I have loved you.
Doug McMasters: Now, this is significant for us because we're right in the middle of that suffering phase of this.
Doug McMasters: We're right in the middle of those quiet places of discouragement.
Doug McMasters: We're right in the middle of those places where we're misunderstood for our belief in Christ.
Doug McMasters: We're right in the middle of those places where we're overlooked and we're dismissed and perhaps even mocked because we say Jesus is Lord.
Doug McMasters: I spent some time with brothers in Russia.
Doug McMasters: A lot of them didn't know their fathers because their fathers had been exiled to Siberia because of their faith in Christ.
Doug McMasters: Men who were brilliant minds, unable to go to college because they wouldn't say communism is Lord.
Doug McMasters: And so they had to suffer with menial work when they could have been some of the brightest lights of engineering or medicine or what have you.
Doug McMasters: Some of us still feel the weight of that.
Doug McMasters: We feel the weight of living faithfully in a world that doesn't regard belief in Christ at all.
Doug McMasters: That doesn't applaud faithfulness, but rather mocks it and scorns it and holds it in derision.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah's promise is not that you're going to win every argument.
Doug McMasters: It's not that the culture is finally going to go, oh, we understand now.
Doug McMasters: Boy, that was really supposed to be helpful to us.
Doug McMasters: It's not that your faithfulness will be recognized now, but it will be.
Doug McMasters: And they will know, as Christ said, that he has loved us.
Doug McMasters: They will know.
Doug McMasters: And that verdict, that verdict comes from God Himself.
Doug McMasters: He comes from the resurrected Christ Himself.
Doug McMasters: That comes from the Lord of glory himself.
Doug McMasters: So why would you pander to get your boss's approval when Jesus has put his stamp of approval on you?
Doug McMasters: Right?
Doug McMasters: Why would you think I need to look better in the eyes of my neighbor when God Himself says they will know that I've loved you?
Doug McMasters: You see, you don't need to go clamoring for identity and acceptance and significance because God says it's all found in Him.
Doug McMasters: Every bit of it.
Doug McMasters: The world will not see the beauty of God's people until that day in which it's revealed.
Doug McMasters: But that day's coming.
Doug McMasters: One last point.
Doug McMasters: This passage gripped my heart and it melted my soul as I spent all week, last week and this week, with it.
Doug McMasters: God's covenant securing his people, God's light breaking the darkness, God dawning that light upon the nations, and God vindicating his people has brought one more place.
Doug McMasters: God's light is everlasting.
Doug McMasters: Look at verse 19 to the end.
Doug McMasters: The sun will no longer be your light by day, and the brightness of the moon will not shine on you.
Doug McMasters: The Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your splendor.
Doug McMasters: Your sun will no longer set and your moon will not fade, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and the days of your sorrow will be over, and all your people will be righteous, and you will possess the land forever.
Doug McMasters: Wow.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah is lifting our eyes to the furthest horizon that human ability can take in.
Doug McMasters: He is reaching us beyond our day upon the close mountains in the foreground to the very edges of our ability to capture.
Doug McMasters: And he's saying that the light that began in Bethlehem doesn't fade.
Doug McMasters: It will never end.
Doug McMasters: It grows brighter and brighter.
Doug McMasters: And so Isaiah wants us to see not only what God has done at Christmas, what God is doing and is bringing the light to the nations, but where God is headed with all of this.
Doug McMasters: And he closes the vision with words that go beyond time.
Doug McMasters: This is the crescendo of Isaiah's vision.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah has spoken of covenant, of dawn, of nations, of vindication.
Doug McMasters: But now he says, look beyond yourself to the furthest horizons that you can capture.
Doug McMasters: And when you look there, what will you see?
Doug McMasters: No more sun, no more moon, no more morning, no more night.
Doug McMasters: Because God Himself will be your everlasting light.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah's vision is cosmic, it's eternal, and it is unshakable in its truth.
Doug McMasters: And this isn't poetic exaggeration, because it is the true and certain future of God's people.
Doug McMasters: Again, the New Testament seizes this language and uses it to describe the final hope of God's people.
Doug McMasters: Now, with your mind very firmly set in verse 19 and 20, I want to read to you Revelation 21 and verse 23.
Doug McMasters: Keep looking at Isaiah 16, verses 19 and 20.
Doug McMasters: But let me read to you some verses out of Revelation.
Doug McMasters: The sun does not, the city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illumines it, and its lamp is the lamb.
Doug McMasters: Night will be no more.
Doug McMasters: People will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light and they will reign forever and ever.
Doug McMasters: Because boy does he use it.
Doug McMasters: Because he's deliberately echoing Isaiah 60 here.
Doug McMasters: Because the everlasting light that Isaiah foresaw, he is saying is fulfilled in the Lamb.
Doug McMasters: The Lamb.
Doug McMasters: He's the lamp, he's the source of that light.
Doug McMasters: The glory that shone in Bethlehem is going to shine forever in the eternal day, in God's people.
Doug McMasters: The dawn of Christmas is the everlasting light of the new creation.
Doug McMasters: It's not just about illumination, it's about righteousness.
Doug McMasters: All your people will be righteous.
Doug McMasters: It's no wonder, John said, there will be no one who lies, no one who is fearful who will be able to enter in.
Doug McMasters: Why?
Doug McMasters: Because all of the people inside of that city are going to be righteous people.
Doug McMasters: Every one of them.
Doug McMasters: Sunsets, the moons wane, electricity flickers.
Doug McMasters: No matter how hard you're tied, Bob, it still flickers.
Doug McMasters: Batteries drain, bulbs burn out, candles sputter.
Doug McMasters: The list goes on.
Doug McMasters: Every light we know is temporary.
Doug McMasters: But Isaiah says there's a light.
Doug McMasters: There's a light that never fails.
Doug McMasters: There's a glory that never fades.
Doug McMasters: There's a splendor that never diminishes here.
Doug McMasters: And that light is God Himself.
Doug McMasters: And He is going to shine that light forever in the presence of His people.
Doug McMasters: You will never be in darkness again.
Doug McMasters: Ever.
Doug McMasters: And so Isaiah's vision meets us in our deepest, deepest longings.
Doug McMasters: Those longings for community, those longings for significance, those longings for transcendence, those longings for vindication, those longings to be home, away from the troubles of all that we bear.
Doug McMasters: He is preaching to every one of those things.
Doug McMasters: Some of us still carry grief.
Doug McMasters: Grief that feels never-ending.
Doug McMasters: Some of us walk through seasons of hardships that feel like never-ending nightmares.
Doug McMasters: Some of us are so discouraged we wonder if joy will ever be a word we could use about ourselves.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah says in verse twenty, the days of your mourning will be over.
Doug McMasters: Not minimized, not ignored, not pushed aside.
Doug McMasters: Over.
Doug McMasters: This is not temporary relief.
Doug McMasters: This is not passing dawn.
Doug McMasters: This is this is forever.
Doug McMasters: God says at the very end of this, I will accomplish this quickly, in its time.
SPEAKER_01: Born of a woman, born under the law.
Doug McMasters: In its time, the dawning began.
Doug McMasters: And in its time, the final day will emerge.
Doug McMasters: Because these words, I will accomplish it quickly, in its time.
Doug McMasters: Come to us out of Revelation.
Doug McMasters: Come to us in Revelation 22.
Doug McMasters: Night will be no more, he says.
Doug McMasters: People will not need the light of a lamp as the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light and they will reign forever and ever.
Doug McMasters: And he says, He said to me, These words are faithful and true.
Doug McMasters: The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.
Doug McMasters: Look, I am coming soon.
Doug McMasters: Blessed is the one who keeps the prophecy of this book.
Doug McMasters: Did Isaiah understand how far he had cast his words when he spoke into the future of some people that were about to go to Babylon and be in exile?
Doug McMasters: No.
Doug McMasters: Did he know that he was speaking to them?
Doug McMasters: I think he did.
Doug McMasters: Did he know he was speaking beyond them?
Doug McMasters: Oh, I think he did.
Doug McMasters: Did he think he was speaking of a time beyond them?
Doug McMasters: Oh, yes, he did.
Doug McMasters: He was speaking of that dawning of the coming of Christ.
Doug McMasters: But did he fully understand how far that would go?
Doug McMasters: To the very end of time itself, into the entrance of eternity, where the Lord says, This will come?
Doug McMasters: Oh Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: You searched and looked with eagerness and intent of what this hope was, Peter says.
Doug McMasters: And Peter says, We know what that is.
Doug McMasters: We know that it's Christ.
Doug McMasters: We know that it's coming because it's already come.
Doug McMasters: That light has shone and it's shining more.
Doug McMasters: And the day is coming when there'll be no more night and no more morning and no more darkness and no more tears and pain and death and agony.
Doug McMasters: Ever.
Doug McMasters: Because it'll be over.
Doug McMasters: It'll be over.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah has brought us on a journey, hasn't he?
Doug McMasters: A journey from the depths of covenantal darkness through the disobedience of these people to the heights of everlasting light.
Doug McMasters: He's shown us what God was doing, what God is doing, and what God's going to do.
Doug McMasters: He's talked to us about God being faithful to his promise.
Doug McMasters: He's talked about God bringing his light and glory into this worth.
Doug McMasters: He's talked about nations streaming toward that light.
Doug McMasters: And the magi just simply a whisper of what's about to happen.
Doug McMasters: He's talked about God vindicating his people.
Doug McMasters: They will know that I've loved you.
Doug McMasters: And here he finishes with light everlasting.
Doug McMasters: No more night, no more morning.
Doug McMasters: The Lord will be your everlasting light, and the God will be your splendor.
Doug McMasters: So now let's ask the question again.
Doug McMasters: What does this mean for us here, now, today?
SPEAKER_01: These few days past Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: The headlines are the same.
SPEAKER_01: The griefs that we carry are the same.
SPEAKER_01: The hardships we'll face the next time we get up will be the same.
SPEAKER_01: But there's something completely different too, right?
Doug McMasters: Because we're people secured in God's promise.
Doug McMasters: We're people awakened to light and glory.
Doug McMasters: We are part of the people that have been gathered among the nations.
Doug McMasters: We are those who wait the day of vindication when it will be revealed to all that God has loved us.
SPEAKER_01: And we are the people who are destined for the eternal day of light.
Doug McMasters: Because Christmas is the dawn, not the end.
Doug McMasters: The manger leads us to an everlasting city.
Doug McMasters: And the child who came as a lamb is going to shine over us forever.
Doug McMasters: So now we can understand what Paul means when he says, Rise, rise, and Christ will shine upon you.
Doug McMasters: Live your life and the light of the truth of what God is accomplishing.
Doug McMasters: Carry out your days as you relate to one another and as you enter into society as bearers of that glorious light.
Doug McMasters: And as you do, the light of Christ will shine over you.
Doug McMasters: And if you're here this morning without Christ, this is an invitation to you as well.
Doug McMasters: Because the light that is dawned in Jesus Christ is a light that's also dawned for undeserving, sinful people.
Doug McMasters: This God who keeps his promises, this God who is broken into our darkness and draws people to himself from all nations, this God who promises everlasting joy, this is the God who's beckoning you, beckoning you to come to him out of the night of your sin and the darkness of despair, who's calling you to come to his marvelous light, in which you'll receive forgiveness and his presence and the stamp of his approval and all of his promises and eternal hope.
Doug McMasters: And he's calling you to himself.
Doug McMasters: And he's saying, just as John at the very end of it in Revelation said, Come, come.
Doug McMasters: And the bride said, Come, come to him who is the light, and find in him no more darkness and no more night.
Doug McMasters: Come to him.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray.
Doug McMasters: Father, glorious things of thee are spoken, we sing.
Doug McMasters: And glorious things of thee are spoken here.
Doug McMasters: Father, what wonder these words are.
Doug McMasters: There's not a wicked man on earth who could write these things.
Doug McMasters: And there's not a good man who could lift himself to the very places that this passage went.
Doug McMasters: These are words that come from you, that speak about you, that talk about Christ who is coming, Christ who has come already, and about what is about to transpire when that day arrives when you say, It's time.
Doug McMasters: It's time.
Doug McMasters: Father, we pray that you secure us as your people in these truths.
Doug McMasters: May it bring our end of this year to rest in hope and arise with joy as we say, Happy New Year.
Doug McMasters: May it be stamped upon our hearts in good and troubling times.
Doug McMasters: May it be the marker of all your people that we are truly a blessed people.
Doug McMasters: For your light has come and your glory is shining.
Doug McMasters: And we pray this in Christ's name.
Doug McMasters: Amen.