Sermon
for Epiphany, January 5, 2016
Grace and peace to you from God our Father, who has blessed us in
the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Amen.
Isaiah 60:1-6 Arise, shine, for
your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is dawning upon you. 2 Look, darkness covers the earth, and deep darkness
covers the peoples, but the Lord will dawn upon you, and his glory will be seen
over you. 3 Nations
will walk to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 4 Look up. Look all around and see! All of them have been gathered. They are coming to you. Your sons will come from far away, and people
will carry your daughters on their side.
5 Then you will look and be radiant. Your heart will race with excitement and
burst with joy. For
great riches from the sea will be delivered to you. The wealth of the nations will come to
you. 6 Caravans
of camels will cover your land, young camels from Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba will come. They will carry gold and incense, and they
will announce the good news of the praise of the Lord. (EHV)
Dear brothers
and sisters of the Light,
Many years ago, I had the opportunity to go on a tour
through Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. Well
back in the deep recess of the cavern, the tour guide gave us a demonstration
of complete darkness. He turned off all
the lights, and we stood there underground for a full minute seeing absolutely
nothing. You couldn’t see your hand an
inch from your face.
Now,
imagine if a blind person had been in our group. What would that person have experienced? You would have to say that he would notice no
difference when the guide turned off the lights. It would be the same as always, seeing
nothing. I think this describes the
natural condition of mankind. Since the
fall into sin, every person is born in spiritual darkness, completely oblivious
to the Light of God. Here, Isaiah tells
us about the cure, for The Lord of light destroys the darkness.
The
prophet is speaking this message to Zion: the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, the
Kingdom of God, the holy Christian Church, to the assembly of all believers in
the One true God. He wrote, “Arise, shine,
for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is dawning upon you.” Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, Isaiah
proclaimed the glory of the Promised Savior.
The people living at that time had to wait patiently for the full
import. Likewise, you and I look back confidently
at the entrance of God’s Son into the world to rescue us from the deep darkness
of sin and death.
A short
time after Jesus was born, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem,
following the light of a miraculous star, seeking the new-born King of the
Jews. We celebrate that event on
Epiphany. Epiphany means the
manifestation, or revealing, of God’s Son to the world, which we remember
especially as the Christ revealing Himself to the Gentiles. For us, the Light has come as Christ revealed
Himself to us through Word and Sacrament.
His light coming to us brought us out of darkness into the light so that
we could actually see again, and like the apostle, John, we can say, “We
have seen his glory, the glory he has as the only-begotten from the Father,
full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
The
prophet wrote, “Look, darkness covers the earth, and deep darkness covers
the peoples, but the Lord will dawn upon you, and his glory will be seen over
you.” Pay attention, he says, for
God has seen your hopeless predicament and brought the remedy of His love to
light. Look around and understand that much
of the world is still afflicted by darkness.
Darkness in our hearts causes our sin.
Darkness is the driving force for all evil in the world. The deep darkness is the thundercloud of evil
covering those who don’t know the Living God.
We can
see that dark cloud rising again in our time.
As people reject Christ and His Father in heaven, violence and wickedness
grow stronger which leads to more and more heartache and pain. Jesus talked about times like we live in when
He said, “Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because lawlessness will increase, the love
of many will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:11-12)
Many people wring their hands and say what can we do to stop such
cruelty and wickedness? The answer is
found solely in Jesus, for He said, “I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will never walk in
darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
In our
time, Christianity is mocked, more people claim to be atheists, the scientific
community pretends that there is no need for a Creator, and the majority of
education in our world pushes against any idea of our God and Savior. Similar to the days before God sent the
floodwaters upon the earth to destroy almost all living things, and like the
time of the Judges in Israel, we could say about our time, “In those days
there was no king…, and every man did whatever was right in his own eyes.”
(Judges 21:25) This is what we face as
Christian believers. So, should we
despair? Should we throw up our hands
and declare there is nothing we can do?
We could
do studies and write vast volumes of books to show that passing more laws doesn’t
stop crime. No amount of pleading and
begging will convince people to be holy.
Indeed, nothing we can do or say will change anyone’s heart, or bring
them closer to salvation, except for this one thing: that we preach Christ
Jesus and Him crucified, for only The Lord of light destroys the darkness.
To the
kingdom of Zion, God declares, “the Lord will dawn upon you, and his glory
will be seen over you. Nations will walk
to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Look up.
Look all around and see! All of
them have been gathered. They are coming
to you. Your sons will come from far
away, and people will carry your daughters on their side. Then you will look and be radiant. Your heart will race with excitement and
burst with joy.”
The
shepherds who heard the angel voices at Bethlehem went and told the things they
had seen and heard—and people believed.
Later, Jesus walked the earth proclaiming God’s forgiveness and
salvation through faith—and vast crowds were drawn to Jesus’ message. But, it wasn’t just that Jesus was a great
preacher, healer, or motivator of men.
It is the fact that God’s Son entered our world, even our human flesh,
to live for us and die for our sins, so His light has lifted our darkness.
The glory
of God walked among our forefathers in the faith. The apostles lived with Jesus for three years
under His instruction. They witnessed
the miracles He performed, the words He spoke.
They saw Jesus go to the cross like a Lamb to the slaughter, saw Him
dead at the hands of Roman soldiers, and buried, and they saw Him rise from the
grave on the third day just as He had promised.
Those twelve
men were sent out from Jerusalem with the message of the Light of the
world. The truth of Jesus’ victory over
sin and death changed darkness into light.
Going first to the scattered remnant of Israel, the apostles proclaimed forgiveness
and salvation through faith in Jesus, and God’s chosen people were gathered
from the far reaches of the known world.
As Isaiah had prophesied, the sons and daughters of Israel were brought
back into the kingdom of the Lord.
The
proclamation of the Gospel changed the future for more than just the blood
descendants of Jacob. “The Lord said:
‘It is too small a thing that you should just be my servant to raise up only
the tribes of Jacob and to restore the ones I have preserved in Israel, so I
will appoint you to be a light for the nations, so that my salvation will be
known to the end of the earth.’” (Isaiah 49:6) This is where you and I come in. The Light of Christ shined upon us as we
heard the Gospel and God washed away our sins in Baptism. The graciousness of our God was shown to us
when He brought us to faith, so that trusting in Jesus as our Savior, we will
see the glories of heaven. What joy
there is in heaven over every sinner who repents. (Luke 15:7)
In our
text, Isaiah foretold, “For great riches from the sea will be delivered to
you. The wealth of the nations will come
to you.” Many have assumed this
verse is talking about offerings of gold and silver to the Lord of heaven and
earth, but it is rather, a picture of the people who have been rescued from the
darkness of sin and gathered into the kingdom of heaven from all over the earth. God isn’t impressed simply because of
offerings of earthly riches. Rather, He
looks for hearts that have been enlightened to believe in His Son.
Dear
friends, many around us still stumble through life in the dark. They don’t know Jesus, don’t know of the
forgiveness offered by His sacrifice and resurrection. We send our children out into the world where
we know they will be under constant attack by the forces of evil, where
darkness will be praised by those still under the control of God’s enemy, and
many people hide from Jesus’ light. We
live in a topsy-turvy world that promotes sin and calls evil good, that wants
to glorify sinful lusts and desires, where God’s laws are mocked, His will
derided, and personal pleasure is sought in every aspect of life. All of this is the product of Satan’s lies
and people trapped in darkness.
Our
children, and our friends and neighbors, desperately need the Light that only
we can share. We have been blessed to
hear about the Savior of the world, and we are made radiant by the holiness He
has put over us. We have the pure light,
the life-giving message of the Gospel, that Jesus lived, died, and rose again
to take away the sins of the world.
Isaiah reminds us not to hide the glory that is ours by bashfulness or
laziness, as he tells us, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the
glory of the Lord is dawning upon you.”
Martin
Luther taught us:
I believe that I cannot by my own
reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the
Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts,
sanctified and kept me in the true faith; just as He calls, gathers, enlightens,
and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus
Christ in the one true faith. In this
Christian Church He daily and richly forgives me and all believers all our
sins; and at the last day He will raise up me and all the dead, and will grant
me and all believers in Christ eternal life.
This is most certainly true.
This is
how we share in the work of the Holy Spirit, because the glory of God reflects
off of us as we proclaim Christ Jesus to those still walking in darkness. Who knows how many might yet be saved? But we do know that The Lord of light
destroys the darkness, so we boldly and faithfully proclaim His name. Amen.
The peace
of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
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