A Year for Boldness 1985

If there's any passage of Scripture that can be applied to the body of Christ worldwide and to this congregation in particular for 1985, it's the first three verses of Isaiah 60. Read them again. Arise, 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 the people. But the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

While darkness spreads over the face of this earth, and thickens over the nations, the glory of the Lord comes to rest upon the body of Christ in a special way at this time, and insists that we rise up and shine. During the coming year, we here in this block are going to be called upon to lay aside, or push aside if we have to, our reserve, our timidity, our fear of man, our self-consciousness, and speak the things we have seen and heard of the kingdom of God, of Jesus, who not only died on that cross, and not only rose from the dead, but is now Lord, and will soon be visible to this earth again. Reading from 2 Kings chapter 7, verse 3, and the background to this is that the city of Samaria was being besieged by the armies of Syria, and so badly were the people in Samaria suffering that they were dying of starvation, and all kinds of horrible things were going on as they were trying to somehow survive.

They just couldn't get any food, and outside the city are these lepers who are between the Syrian army and the city, and they're in the middle of warring camps, somehow have survived this far. Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance of the gate, and they said to one another, why do we sit here till we die? If we say, let us enter the city, the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we shall die also.

So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives, we shall live. If they kill us, we shall but die.

So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians, but when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there. For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians to hear the sound of chariots and of horses, and the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the king of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt, and they have come up upon us. So they fled away in the twilight and forsook their tents, their horses, and their asses, leaving the camp as it was and fled for their lives.

And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank and carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them, and then they came back and entered another tent and carried off the things that were in it and hid them. Then they said to one another, we are not doing right. The day, this day, is a day of good news.

If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore, come, let us go and tell the king's household. These lepers had never been in this situation before.

Always they had been subdued, you know, and they had lived really in obscurity. The only time they could lift up their voices was when they would have to holler, unclean, unclean, as people would come near them. But now, they have found food, and inside that city, people are starving.

Moreover, they've discovered that the Syrian armies are gone. And they begin to realize, and they say to themselves, if we keep silent and say nothing until morning, punishment's going to overtake us. Let's go and tell the king.

So they go to the gate of the city, and it's, by this time it's dark. Hey, wake up! We got food out here! And the gatekeeper kind of blinks his eyes and comes, and he doesn't believe it. No kidding! Syrians are gone! Come on! They tell the king's household.

The king says, it's a trick. All they want to do is suck us out of the city, then they'll come in and invade. And somebody says, well, we got five horses left that haven't died.

We haven't been eaten. Let's send some people out and check it out. And they do, and of course, they discover it's exactly as the lepers have said.

The lepers were in a situation where they saw something nobody else knew, and they speak. Finally, they speak up. All their lives, they have lived in obscurity, but now they have to raise up their voices and convince that city that it's so.

They found food. And by telling the city, the city is blessed, and so are these lepers. We are those lepers.

We have found food at a time when most people don't know anything about this food. And if we sit around and enjoy this food for ourselves and take the gold and the silver from the Syrian tents and bury it for ourselves and don't tell the city, we're under judgment. There is a time to remain quiet and to be hidden by the hand of God and live our lives in obscurity, but there is also a time to speak up.

We have come to such a time. Our Lord is another example. For 30 years, he lived in obscurity.

After his birth, nobody knew who he was. Married, the shepherds were gone, the wise men were gone, the angels were gone, and here's this child growing up in Nazareth, this young man. Nobody knows him.

At the age of 30, he goes down to the Jordan River, gets baptized. The Spirit comes on him. John says, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

Few disciples gather around him, but still nobody tells. He goes into the wilderness to be tempted, comes out again, starts doing some teaching. And finally, the Father says to him, Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

For behold, darkness will cover the earth, gross darkness to people. The Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you, and nations shall come to your light, kings to the brightness of your rising. And he obeys.

And interesting, he manifests forth his glory. He begins to do this at a wedding feast, which is run out of wine. John chapter 2, verse 1 and following.

He's at this wedding feast, his disciples are there, his mother's there, and they run out of wine, and his fingers were falling flat on his face, and people are going away in disgust. This guy doesn't even have enough, you know, food to make it worthwhile. Mary comes to Jesus and they have no wine.

Woman, don't get me involved. My hour hasn't come. And then the Father says, it's here now.

And Mary says, whatever he tells you to do, you do it. To the servants, there are these huge stone water jars with a capacity of 20 to 30 gallons apiece. You know what a 30-gallon water tank looks like.

And Jesus says, fill the water jars. They fill them to the brim. Now, draw some out and take it to the steward of the feast, and they do it.

Steward tastes this wonderful wine, calls the bridegroom. What's the deal? Every time I run one of these things, they serve the good stuff, and then when they're half drunk, they bring out the bad wine. But you've kept a good wine until now.

And then it says, this first of his signs, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory. He arose and shone. Now the glory of God begins to be seen, and his disciples believed on him.

And from that event all the way through to the time when he hangs on the cross, Jesus speaks clearly so he can be heard, and he does what he does publicly so it can be seen. He does not pussyfoot. He does not tiptoe.

He walks, nor does he whisper or mumble. He speaks so that thousands of people can hear him out in the open air without a PA system. It's not this intimate voice coming through a PA system.

He's speaking so they can hear what he has to say. He's meek. He's lowly of heart.

He's humble, and he's poor, but he's bold. And there's no mistaking in anybody's mind what he says. You could say that for 30 years, the Father had kept Jesus covered with his hand, kept him obscure.

And then the moment comes, he lifts his hand and says, Now rise and shine! And Jesus obeys. In a similar way, in the history of the body of Christ, there are periods when, for reasons of his own, God covers his church or his people in a certain place with his hand. Nobody realizes what's going on there.

Nobody outside that group can really see much of what's happening. And then, for reasons of his own, he lifts his hand and says, Rise and shine! Example would be the Apostle Paul. When Saul of Tarsus was converted on the road to Damascus, he saw the light and he heard the voice.

He goes in, he's baptized, he receives the Spirit, and he immediately begins to teach. But nobody much knows what's going on with this man. Pretty soon there's a pot on his life.

They lower him in the middle of the night in a basket over the wall of the city. He goes to Jerusalem, shows himself to the Apostles, does some teaching. There's another pot on his life.

He has to leave Jerusalem, goes back to his hometown of Tarsus, goes to Arabia for a while, back to Tarsus. And after a long period of time in obscurity, Barnabas comes to him one day and says, We need you. Something's happening over in Antioch and we need help.

We need a teacher coming. For a year, Barnabas and Saul are teachers in Antioch until one day, as these men of God, these prophets, are fasting and praying, the Spirit says, Separate from me, Saul and Barnabas, for the work to which I have called them. And it's at that point that the Lord is saying to Saul, Paul, Rise and shine, for your light has come, for the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

For behold, darkness will cover the earth and gross darkness the people, but the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you and nations shall come to your light, Paul, and kings to the brightness of your rising. And it was so. He goes out into the Gentile world and he speaks to nations and kings and they come to him and are moved by what they hear.

At the age of 17, Joseph has a dream. He sees the sun and moon and 11 stars bow down before him. And then the dummy tells his brothers, his 11 brothers, you know, and that's the last straw.

They've had enough of this kid. They can't stand him. Daddy's boy.

And so they sell him to some Ishmaelite merchants who take him to Egypt and sell him into slavery. At the age of 17, pretty soon he's in jail and he spends 13 years in obscurity. And then suddenly one day he's lifted from prison to the highest ranking spot in the whole land of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh.

And the Lord is saying to him, Joseph, arise and shine for your light has come. It's time for you to fulfill my purpose. And he does.

And so with us, in many ways, God has kept us covered with his hand and told us to keep a low profile, I believe. But I also believe that now we have come to a time when he is saying to this congregation, rise and shine for your light has come. I'm taking the lid off and I want you to shine.

I want you to sleep. It's never before. I've worked.

It must be done. It will bring me glory. Now's the time.

Now, you've never heard me say this in 26 years. And if I'm wrong, let the year 1985 prove me wrong. What does it mean to rise and shine? It means three things.

First, it means that we come into the presence of God with confidence. Second, it means that we come into the assembly, the fellowship of the saints with encouragement. And only after we've done these first two things, come into the presence of God, into the fellowship of saints, then we go out into the world anointed with the spirit of boldness.

We won't have the spirit of boldness out there if we don't do the first two things. First, we come into the presence of God with confidence, reading from Hebrews 4, 14. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God.

Let us hold fast our confession. We have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

We have a high priest who has gone through the veil into the presence of the Father for us. He's broken the veil, torn down every wall, overcome every sin with his blood, and now stands before the Father, interceding for us by name. He knows our weaknesses.

He knows our failings. He knows our temptations. He knows everything we're going through.

We can never say, but Lord, you don't know what it's like to be a human. He knows. You say, but Lord, you don't know what it's like to be a man.

He knows. Lord, you don't know what it's like to be a woman. He knows.

And he says, come in, stand by me and let me teach you to worship the Father, to ask and to praise and to give thanks. And when you come in, don't be groveling and don't be slinking and don't crawl in on your heads and knees backwards. Come in with confidence, for I prepared the way for you.

Come and learn with me to live and walk and speak in the presence of God. Lay aside your unbelief, repent of it, and get rid of your timidity and come with confidence. Live in the presence of the Father.

Secondly, to arise and shine means that we come in to the fellowship of the saints with encouragement. Reading from Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, always and for everything, giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God, the Father.

Submit yourselves to one another out of reverence for Christ. The Lord, who first manifested his glory by turning water into wine at that wedding feast at Cana, now comes into our wedding feast and gives us the wine of his kingdom, the wine that will never make you drunk, wine that will never give you a hangover, never cause you to do anything that you will regret, the wine of the Spirit. Filled with this wine, we become servants of encouragement to each other, and we speak to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with all our hearts to the Lord.

We are commanded to encourage each other. Many of us come to the fellowship hoping for some encouragement, and there's nothing wrong with that, but a far better way is to come to the fellowship with some encouragement. Come to encourage, and you will be encouraged.

You know, if you don't, oh, I didn't get any encouragement today again. You know, that's how it'll be. You know, you'll go week after week, and it'll get worse and worse, but come with a desire to bring encouragement from God to your brothers and sisters, you'll be encouraged.

After having done these two things, the third way we rise and shine is to go out into that world anointed with the Spirit of wholeness. Three o'clock one afternoon, Peter and John are on their way into the temple for the hour of prayer. They meet the man who'd been lame from birth, who's begging.

Silver and gold we don't have, but what we have we give you. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, get up and walk. They take the man by the hand, and to his own amazement, he's able to walk, and he starts to leap and dance and jump and shout, and there's a tremendous noise going on.

People run from all over the place like it's an automobile accident. Peter begins to preach, and in the middle of his sermon he says, it's through the name of Jesus that you crucify, but who God raised. This man walks.

In the middle of his sermon come the temple police, put handcuffs on him, throw him in jail. The next morning, Peter and John are hauled up before the chief priests and the elders. Who gives you the right to go around healing people? By what authority do you do this? And they preach again, by the authority of the name of Jesus, no other name under heaven.

This Jesus whom you crucified, God raised, and so they chew them out and threaten them, don't be doing this anymore, to send him away. They go back to the fellowship and share and report the threats that have been put upon them, and really the whole church, and immediately everybody together comes into the presence of God with confidence, and they bring encouragement to each other as they pray in unity, and the thing they pray for is boldness. And the prayer goes like this from Acts chapter 4 verse 29, and now Lord look upon their threats and grant to thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness, while thou stretchest out thy hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed in the name of thy holy servant Jesus.

When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with boldness. Now these people had been through Pentecost already, but this time again they're filled with the Spirit, and this prayer answered immediately as the Spirit moves upon them, and they speak the word of God with boldness, causes them to go out and shake the city of Jerusalem, literally. The time has come for us to make this prayer our prayer, the very same prayer, Lord behold their threats, and grant thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness, while thou stretchest out thy hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed in the name of thy holy servant Jesus.

We can be sure that when this prayer becomes our constant, urgent, fervent prayer, this place will begin to shake as never before, and we will be filled with the Spirit to a degree we have never before experienced in our lives. And we will speak the word of God to each other and to the world with a boldness which we have never known. So let's begin, and let's not quit until the whole city feels the impact.

For a long time God has covered us with his hand, and I believe has intentionally has guided us to remain hidden, but now he is saying to us, I believe this, and I believe many here are hearing the same thing. He is saying, turn aside from your timidity, repent of your reserve, your fear of man, and your self-consciousness, and speak the things which you have seen and heard of the kingdom of God and of the king, Jesus. Arise, shine, for your life has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.

For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and thick darkness the people, but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you, and nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.