Sermon Tone Analysis

Copyright September 25 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

We are living in tumultuous times.

Truths we have believed all our lives are being undermined.

Bible believing Christians are being painted as bigots and terrorists to get us to conform to the “Woke-speak” of today.

(Originally the term “woke” meant an awareness of injustice, specifically racial injustice.

But the word has also expanded over time to describe an ideology that is hypersensitive to perceived injustices.)

If you don’t march in step with the culture, you may be canceled (removed from all media accounts), you may be fired (as a troublemaker), or you may be slandered by having obscure statements taken out of context and published to show you in the worst light possible.

You might even be sued for damages because of your “biased” attitudes.

This is not about rational debate, this is about conformity.

It is about who shouts the loudest and who can capture the language to control those around them.

Erwin Lutzer (retired pastor at Moody Church) has a new book out titled NO REASON TO HIDE: STANDING FOR CHRIST IN A COLLAPSING CULTURE.

In the book, he looks at the issues and pressures on the church today.

Lutzer recounts the heroic efforts of former President John Kennedy when he was in the Navy and heroically rescued the crew members of PT 109.

Kennedy and crew saw their boat destroyed.

They made it to a deserted island.

Kennedy swam to a nearby island where he could get help for his crew.

He concluded the story with these words,

When your boat is blown out of the water, you have a choice: allow yourself to be captured by the enemy, sink, or swim.

If you refuse to surrender, you can disappear silently under the waves or muster the courage to swim to shore and become a hero.

Perhaps a reluctant hero, to be sure, but a hero nonetheless.

And through this courage, you can remain a faithful witness for Christ.

(p.

17)

I find Isaiah 60, especially verses 1-3 to be powerful words to us just as they were to the Israelites.

1 “Arise, Jerusalem!

Let your light shine for all to see.

For the glory of the Lord rises to shine on you.

2 Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth,

but the glory of the Lord rises and appears over you.

3 All nations will come to your light;

mighty kings will come to see your radiance.

This is not the best translation of the verse.

It is more accurately, “Arise, shine, for your light has come.”

It points to something that has happened to us rather than something we must bring to pass.

The picture is a darkness that will cover the earth.

This darkness is godlessness among the people.

See if these words from Timothy don’t seem to describe our day.

Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. 2 These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead.

3 They will say it is wrong to be married and wrong to eat certain foods.

But God created those foods to be eaten with thanks by faithful people who know the truth.

4 Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks.

5 For we know it is made acceptable by the word of God and prayer.

(1 Timothy 4:1-5)

In the midst of the abandonment of faith, what are we to do?

We are to arise and shine!

There are three dimensions to the words in Isaiah.

First, they referred to Israel proper.

The people had been in exile and God was going to bring them home under the Persian Emperor Cyrus.

They were to arise and shine in their victory.

The second application is to the church.

God brings light into the world through the New Zion, the church.

As the gospel expanded so did the view of “Zion.”

Paul says we are now “grafted into Israel” (Romans 11) and our job in the world is to “let our light shine.”

The final fulfillment of these words will be at the return of Christ.

This is when his light will shine most brightly.

We see this in the last verses of the chapter.

19 The sun shall be no more

your light by day,

nor for brightness shall the moon

give you light;

but the Lord will be your everlasting light,

and your God will be your glory.

These events have yet to take place.

They will come to fulfillment at the return of our Lord to the earth . . .

this time as conqueror and judge.

In the verses that follow in Isaiah 60, the Lord tells Israel some of the remarkable things that were going to happen to them.

They would move from a land in shambles to a thriving land that would carry the focus of the entire world.

People would be drawn to the glory of the Lord that rested on them.

I hope you can see how these words could also apply to the church.

We too will be brought out of the secular confusion of the world into the light of wisdom and understanding.

We should be people who drawn others to Him because they see His light in us.

To get to this point we must “arise and shine.”

To do this we must keep in mind three things.

Who the Lord is

Look at all the references to the Lord in the passage.

The hope of the people is found (1-2) in the fact that “the glory of the Lord rises to shine on you.”

In v 7 the Lord says, “I will accept their offerings and make my temple glorious.”

In v 9 we read, “They will honor the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has filled you with splendor.”

In verse 15 we read, “I will make you beautiful forever, a joy to all generations.”

In verse 16 “You will know at last that I the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer the Mighty One of Israel.”

The LORD is the one who will make Israel great!

The Lord is the One who blesses and works in us as well.

And we can’t forget this! Worldly philosophies will not save us.

They can’t even make us happy!

The push is to get the church to embrace the views of those who consider themselves “enlightened” or “woke.”

However, earthly thinking can do nothing for us except keep us confused.

If we are going to anchor to something, it should be to something solid and reliable.

We must anchor to the Lord and not the ways of men.

Are things becoming more difficult?

Yes.

There is a great push to silence those who want to treat the Word of God as the true truth!

The secular world doesn’t mind if you believe in the Bible . . .

so long as you interpret it the way they want you to interpret it.

Their way of interpreting strips it of all authority!

They want the Bible to conform to their thinking rather than conforming our thinking to the Bible.

Paul asks in the book of Romans, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

It is a rhetorical question that implies the answer . . .

No one!

And this is something you and I need to remember.

The world may grumble, growl, and call us names, threaten any number of thing, but the world will not and cannot lead us to peace, joy, or a right relationship with God.

The world wants to control us and, contrary to public opinion, the Lord wants to teach us what it means to be free!