Evening everyone. My name is Tom, if you didn't pick that up at the start. I've been involved
with St. Columbians for a long time, but I'm now involved with the Esk Valley Church plant,
and I'm not here so often now, so it's really good to be back and to be part of the fellowship
again, so good to see you all, even if I've never met you before, it's good to see you.
And we're going to spend a bit of time, as Corey said, looking at this chapter primarily
in Isaiah chapter 60. Isaiah, or Corey, rather, Corey prayed right at the start of the service
for something very important. He prayed that God would give us hope. The question I was
going to ask right at the start of the service is this, what hope is there for the nations?
Now, you see why I'm asking that question in just a minute, but it's a bit of a cliche,
isn't it? I think, to look at the world and to feel a sense of despair sometimes, you
maybe feel that very keenly tonight. There are many ways in which we can look around
us and feel a sense of trouble closing in on us. Now, you maybe know that really personally
tonight, but like I say, if you look at the headlines, I saw a number this week, and there's
poverty and the threat of war, and so many different issues that are coming down on top
of us, it feels all the time, and so the question goes out time and time again, and maybe in
your social circles and on our news feeds and everywhere, what hope is there? What hope
is there for the nations? What can the world do about itself? So I think a chapter like
the one we're about to look at gives us the answer, and it gives us the hope that we need
personally and that we need to proclaim to, we hope, a listening world. Trouble all around,
and different people have different answers. It reminded me when I was thinking about this
of George Orwell, who famously said in one of his novels, hope lies in the proles, or
the proletariat. In other words, you need an uprising from below, you need the common
people to rise up, stand up for what is good. Now, that's one perspective. Maybe another
group of people would say, well, hope lies in a place like Davos in Switzerland, where
we have a gathering this week of the World Economic Forum. Is that where hope lies for
the world? Do you feel like those who gathered last week at Davos have your interests at
heart? Are they going to help you? What are they going to do for you? And for everything
that's going on in the world, that makes it such a difficult place. The slogan after
all, I saw a brief excerpt of the Canadian Prime Minister speaking, and this is what
it said on the wall behind him, in big words so everyone could see, committed to improving
the state of the world. So there you go. Hope lies at Davos, perhaps. But what we find is
we come towards the end of Isaiah, and we get this unfolding of the vision of what Isaiah
describes in Isaiah chapter 60, is a clear picture of the hope for an expanded Zion,
the hope that God pronounces to the world, which so amazingly and beautifully speaks
to the nations of the world, and speaks into eternity. So that is what I want to bring
out tonight. Hope for the world lies in being in this expanded notion of the Zion of God.
So we see that in a few different ways. But I want to start by saying that we go first
of all to chapter verse 12. If I was to do a kind of breakdown of the chapter just in
terms of how it works, how it's structured, some people are interested in this kind of
thing, there's quite a formal structure here, which I'm not going to spend a lot of time
on, but in many ways the heart of the chapter is verse 12. So in verse 12 we read about
a very serious thing. It says in verse 12, for the nation and kingdom that will not serve
you shall perish, those nations shall be utterly laid waste. There's a pivotal issue going
on here, and it's raising the fact that the world's real issue is to see God for who
he is as the judge of all the world, the creator of all the world, the one to whom all the
nations of the world should and will one day bow. But actually if you think about it,
and as you may have noticed when we were reading through the chapter, the chapter is bookended.
It has the central pivot of this call, this fundamental need for repentance before the
holy God, but it's bookended at the start and at the end by talk of a redeemer, a wonderful
redeemer who is the hope, who is personally, centrally the hope that the nations must turn
to. So we're going to see that as we go through the chapter. But we begin, and the first point
I want to bring out is just this, that the redeemer and his repentant people of Zion,
that's the first thing, the first kind of stage if you like in thinking about the hope
for the nations. So it's grounded in this fact that the nations in the kingdoms that
don't serve the Lord will perish. Repentance is absolutely vital. Come into a clear-eyed
understanding of who we are, that we are created beings who stand before an awesome God, is
our starting place that never changes, or has to become our starting place if it's never
been that before. And so there's a need to be humbled before the God. But it also speaks,
and if I could take you back to where Corey started reading from, the end of chapter 59,
it speaks about this personal redeemer who comes in verse 20, a redeemer will come to
Zion, a rescuer, a saviour. These people aren't self-sufficient. They don't have it, in other
words, within themselves to redeem themselves. They need a redeemer. He is the one who is
pronounced, who is spoken about, and who they are to trust in. So Isaiah is full of call.
I believe you've been looking at the servants' songs over the last few weeks, and there are
frequently calls to people to repent, to return. That's another kind of concept that is frequently
used. Return to me, says the Lord. I am your sovereign. I am the one over you. Return to
me. Repent. Even if I was to go back just to pick a different example, different language
at the start of chapter 55, come. Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. He who has
no money, come, buy, and eat. God calls people to himself because he's the one who fixes
them, and who heals them, and who satisfies them. So the first thing is to see this redeemer,
and his people, those who are the repentant people, those who will humble themselves and
who will come before him. And he's revealed, again, if I can just go back into chapter
59, specifically as a person, there is this notion that grows throughout the pages of
the Old Testament of the Deliverer, the Messiah, the one who God will send to be the Deliverer.
And the first thing that we see is that he is the righteous one. Chapter 59, verse 16,
the Lord saw that there was no man, wondered that there was no one to intercede, then his
own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. He is the righteous one. He himself
has what it takes. He's the righteous one. What else? Verse 20, again, we've seen already
a redeemer will come, a rescuer, one who will save people who are dying from darkness. He
goes on to speak about deep, thick darkness, and he will bring them into life, and he will
bring them into light. Now, there's good news. He's the righteous one. He's the redeemer.
Let me bring it into chapter 60. Let me just read through into verse 2. A rise 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 to peoples. But the Lord will arise upon you, and his
glory will be seen upon you. So that's speaking here of the Lord. But again, this concept
familiar to his nation, his people, the Israelites, the glory of the Lord. Good news again. The
Lord is speaking to us again of his glory rising upon us. He's the righteous one. He's
the redeemer. He's the glorious one. Here is news of hope. Now, in many ways, so far,
so in keeping with expectations for God's covenant people, the Lord speaks to them again
in terms which they know it's like music to their ears. He pronounces to them their waywardness
throughout the prophecy, and he pronounces to them about himself, about his faithfulness,
about his mercy, and he reveals himself as the one to whom they need to return. And so
for if you think about the context, what are people going to be thinking when they're hearing
this prophecy? How do people in Isaiah's day process this kind of stuff? Well, it's
good news to them, but it's in keeping with how God has revealed himself to them. He's
going to restore us again. Things are going to be as they were, perhaps, when we were
gathered together, and together as a nation, not as they were in exile, scattered, beaten
down, wandering. So the first news of hope is the redeemer and his repentant people
of Zion. That's fundamental here. But this chapter, if you like, just takes off as we
go through it, because the second thing that I want to see is the expansion, as I mentioned
at the start, of this concept of Zion, the broadening of the picture, the expansion of
Zion, the increasing, expanding role of the nations. So it goes on to speak of the nations
and of the blessing of God to the nations in ways that would perhaps have been unimaginable
to his covenant people at one time. A global gathering of the nations into his family.
Now that is so much bigger. The picture is so much bigger for them to comprehend. Many
of his people, after they return, again thinking contextually, after they return from exile
and they gather again and they rebuild the temple, there's a sense of disappointment
amongst some of the people, because they may be expected great things again. And yet in
their time and in their place when they rebuild the temple, they're thinking, well, it's not
quite the same. We're not quite the same as we were. The temple isn't quite the same
as it was. We're not quite as glorious. Things aren't quite the same. And yet the vision
that is presented in this chapter is so much bigger than the expectations and the vision
that they had. How so? Well, verse 3, he's spoken about how the Lord will arise upon
you and his glory will be seen upon you and nations shall come to your light. Now he's
already said, arise and shine for your light will come and nations shall come to your light
and kings to the brightness of your rising. In other words, ordinary people and royalty
from all the nations will flock to the light that you have. There's an expansion of their
picture, of their framework, if you like. One comment here, I like, Matier who I was reading
says this, the nations don't come as mere porters of Zion's children, but as converts
to the Lord in their own right and as his evangelists, as those who tell of his goodness.
Come down to verse 6, a multitude of camels shall cover you and young camels of Midian
and Epha, all those from Sheba shall come, they shall bring gold and frankincense. Is
that ringing bells? From the nations coming bringing gifts and shall bring good news, the
praises of the Lord. There are people coming from the nations of the world bringing good
news and praises to the Lord who is the light. So these rulers and these ordinary people
will come from the nations, but also as we go through this section, we didn't read all
of the chapter, but as we go through this section, we see another thing, the nations
will build and beautify this expanding Zion, this kingdom of God growing and expanding
throughout the nations and throughout time as God builds his people down through the
ages. So what we're seeing here is an unfolding picture of God's big picture of salvation
down through the ages. The nations will build and beautify this new Zion. Verse 10, foreigners
shall build up your walls and their kings shall minister to you. Verse 13, the glory
of Lebanon shall come to you, the Cyprus, the plain and the pine, to beautify the place
of my sanctuary and I will make the place of my feet glorious. Now again, the people
of his day reading this are considering this. When Solomon built his temple, he sent to
the nations of the world to import some of the finest of the materials to beautify the
temple and to beautify all that they were building. So again, is this just another expression
of how they'll import some of the finest stuff to make the finest temple? Well, no. There's
so much more going on here that speaks in bigger terms and picture language about the
building throughout time and history and the beautifying as God brings people from all
places into his family, into his kingdom, as his kingdom is being built together to the
praise of his glorious name as he says at the end of that verse, and I will make the
place of my feet the resting place where he will be glorious. What a big picture of what
God is doing and will do amongst the nations. And in many ways, you know what this is? This
is the original story of globalization. This is the big global picture and it's the best
one, isn't it? It's the best picture for the world. There are two examples came to my mind
this week. As far as I know, there are two examples in advertising history where a soft
drink is held out as not only tasty, but as the savior of the world. And the first example
I thought of was actually comes at the end of a program that I enjoyed watching it suddenly
cut to this advert. And it's from 1971 and it's an advert for Coca-Cola. And it's a very
famous advert. And it's an advert that kind of pronounces this global picture of unity
and harmony as the peoples of the world and all the different races come together and
celebrate what they have in common. And of course what they have in common is a bottle
of Coca-Cola branded each in their own language. But here's the lyrics. Very interesting what
the lyrics say in the song that accompanies this advert. I'd like to buy the world a home
and furnish it with love. Grow apple trees and honeybees and snow white turtle doves.
I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. I'd like to buy the world a Coke
and keep it company. What the world wants today is the real thing. So there's a 1971
beginning of the era of globalization, market driven forces, pronouncement of what the world
needs. There was a sense of optimism or perhaps slightly less optimism at the end of the 60s
to the 70s, a sense of coming together of all the different nations of the world, of
pronouncing their need for harmony and of unity exploited by a soft drink company of
course. But what we get in this beautiful picture is of the nations coming together,
focused around not just a sense of the worthiness that they have together or of their own attainment
or of their beautiful characteristics but of the Lord himself as their need and as their
fulfillment. Again, commentator says this, to confine a prophecy like this just to the
return from Babylon of the Israelites is to fail to listen to what Isaiah is saying.
He looks for a worldwide regathering. The reality of this is the winning of the nations
and the gathering of all into the heavenly Zion when the Lord Jesus returns. So we focus
in on the Redeemer and his repentant people we focus on the expansion of Zion, the role
of the nations and the blessing of the nations as they're called to hear this good news.
And the third, final thing I want to focus in is this. In this big picture of this wonderful
kingdom, everything will be better than it was because Jesus is the peace of Zion. Everything
will be better because Jesus is the peace at the center of Zion. Again, just to go through
the final section of the chapter, there's a sense of unfolding wonder as we go through
these verses. What's it like to be a part of this movement? What's it look like there?
Is this something I want to be a part of? Is it good there? Are things better? Are they
fixed? Well, in verse 11 we read about the gates. Your gates, you picture a city, a city
which has been besieged as it were. Literally, they were besieged and they were held off
captive. But here now we read this. Your gates shall be open continually. Day and night they
shall not be shut. A picture that maybe you think initially of security, which would be
fair, but it's also a picture of the gates open continually because people are constantly
coming in. There's a constant stream of people coming into this place. Multitudes coming
into this place. It's a picture also of brilliance. Verse 17, instead of bronze, I'll bring gold.
Instead of iron, I'll bring silver. Instead of wood, bronze. Instead of stones, iron.
I will make your overseer's peace. The brilliance that is spoken of here reflects, in many ways,
the glory of the Lord himself as we'll come on to see. It's a place of brilliance and
of beauty. It's a place also of specifically security and of peace. In verse 16, at the
end of verse 16, you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior. You shall know it. These
were people who had been so fearful and exiled and broken and guilty, so messed up. And he
says, you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty
one of Jacob. You shall know this. At the end of verse 17, I will make your overseer's
peace and your taskmaster's righteousness. I will make your overseer's, not exploiter's,
but peace. So again, this expanding, and I've got time to bring out all the different ways
in which we see this in this passage. Go home and read it through again and just see the
way in which it unfolds in goodness and in splendor. Everything will be better, but specifically
because of the presence of this Redeemer that we mentioned at the start. Again, remember
I said that this Redeemer, this figure bookends in many ways this chapter. And so here again
at the end of this, what do we see? Verse 19, the sun shall no more be 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. He will be the one who is there, who is your light,
who is your glory. It goes on in verse 20, the Lord will be your everlasting light and
your days of mourning shall be ended. Now, God has revealed to us the Redeemer, the one
who will make all this possible if we trust in him. He has shown us his son who gave up
his life. You've been reading the songs over the last few weeks of the suffering servant
and he is the one who has made this possible. He is the one who laid down his life, who
in love became nothing and yet is the ascended and risen and glorified Lord of all the earth,
the one before whom every knee shall bow. And he is the one who at the center of the
throne rules and will one day be revealed in all of his glory before all of the nations
and every knee will bow. And so of course we ask ourselves the question right now whether
before him we're conscious of his majesty and whether before him our hearts are humble
and thankful and grateful because the New Testament of course reveals to us the reality
of Jesus, the righteous one, the one who laid down his life. But I want to, as we come towards
the end of what I want to look at tonight, just read from Revelation chapter 21 because
you'll see I think when I read how many parallels there are with this beautiful picture in Isaiah
chapter 60 where we see again this wonderful reflection of God's provision in Jesus Christ,
so I'm going to turn to Revelation chapter 21. Let me read from verse 10. Speaks about
a new Jerusalem coming down, this new city of God coming down. And then we read, and
he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city
Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like
a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. A picture there of the beauty, the
splendour and the glory of this place. But then I'm going to go down to verse 22. And
I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb.
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it
light and its lamp is the Lamb, the Lamb, the one who suffered, the servant, your servant
who is at the centre of this beautiful place. By its light will the nations walk and the
kings of the earth will bring their glory into it and its gates will never be shut by day
and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honour of
the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it. Nothing unclean will ever enter
it. So this is God's picture that he wants us to see. And what I want to do is just finish
by saying so what do we do with this? You enter a new week, you maybe are here tonight
and considering God and wondering who he is and whether he is somebody who bears any
relevance to your life whatsoever. You may be somebody who's been a Christian for a
long time and you're wondering how to still go on following him and whether he is good
for you and whether he will be faithful to his promises. So I just want to say two things
in finishing and the first is this. We ask the question over and over again as we face
trouble in person and as we look out and we see devastation and threat and fear all around
us and we ask the question what hope is there for the nations. First thing is this, see
the plan of God for the nations. Behold it, consider it, put it up in big letters before
you. Be convinced again of God's power and his ability and his desire which has already
been fulfilled in Jesus to bring this to effect. What a vision for the nations. But remember
what a vision for those among the nations who will humble themselves and repent before
the Lord. So that's the first thing, see again, be convinced of the big picture, the story
of God for the nations. And the second thing is to this, to you, if you're somebody who
has trusted in the Lord then don't fear. There is much to fear but I want to take you back
to verse one because in verse one we read these words. He says to his people, arise,
shine for your light has come. Now that is never more true than to you and I as we look
back to the Redeemer Jesus. Your light has come. The Lord has displayed to you and I
what he will do, what he has done because of his great love to purchase a people for
himself from amongst all the nations which includes you and me. Arise and shine for your
light, your Redeemer, your Saviour. You know him, you behold him, Jesus Christ, the suffering
servant. The second soft drink I referenced Coca-Cola and of course their great rivals,
Pepsi brought out a rather unfortunate advert a couple of years or so ago and in this advert
there were lots of young people who were very fresh and exciting and they were demonstrating
something and they were faced by a line of very doer looking riot police or something
and from amongst these young exciting demonstrators comes a celebrity, I can't remember which
one and the point is that she comes out and she approaches these repressive people who
are stopping them expressing themselves and demonstrating and being free and she hands
them a kind of Pepsi. It's supposed to signify in some kind of way the liberation comes through
being young and free and expressive and having Pepsi. And again the tagline, the lyrics to
this advert are very instructive. They tell us a lot about what the perception is for
hope amongst the nations. The final tagline for the advert is this, it talks in the song
that accompanies the advert about our generation, we're going to rise up, we're going to shine.
And then it says live strong, live loud, live now. Fine. Except what's that telling you
to do? It's telling you to find your own light inside of yourself which you can project to
the world and which can in some way bring harmony and peace and healing among the nations.
And you know what, that is a terrible burden for you to have to bear. I don't have that
within me and I don't think anyone here does. That we within ourselves have the light, the
capacity, the ability to heal ourselves let alone bring healing to the nations. And so
what we're counseled by God's word to do is to behold His light and to see over and over
again that the provision is not found within ourselves but in His accomplishment in Jesus
Christ. So a few verses just to leave you with. In John chapter 8, Jesus says, I am
the light of the world, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the
light of life. In Matthew 5 he says, let your light so shine before men that they may see
your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Now what does that look like? Well
in 1 Peter then finally we read this, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who
called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So know that light, Jesus Christ for
yourself and being so convinced of his worthiness, hold out that light, proclaim that light to
a world who so desperately needs him. I'm going to pray and then I'm going to finish
and sing. Lord your ability is far more than ours. Your everything about you is awesome
and great but we praise you that you reveal as much as we need to know of your purposes
for the world. You speak truthfully to us of our condition and of our need and we pray
that you would give us wisdom and love for those around us so that we can help or seek
to help those who are in need and be a part of our society to bring good and to bring
blessing but convince us Lord that you are our soul's satisfaction, you are our great
rescuer and redeemer and please use us Lord so that more may be brought into your kingdom
and so that your name might be glorified in our corner of the world. We pray that you
would be very great in our eyes. In Jesus' name. Amen.