Nov. 25, 2018 PM A New Zion by Conley Owens Deacon

Isaiah’s Vision of the Latter Days and the Church as Zion

Today we are in Isaiah 2 verses 1 through 4. When I find them, I will read them to you. The word that Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw concerning Judah in Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills, and all the nation shall flow to it.

And many peoples shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

Amen. So this passage is likely a passage that you are fairly familiar with, that you've encountered before. A lot of these words are very familiar. Swords into plowshares. This passage has given many people hope on many occasions.

In fact, you may not know this, Richard Nixon, when he was sworn into office, instead of being sworn in with the Bible closed, he had the Bible opened to this passage for both administrations. So it filled him with hope, and maybe it fills you with hope.

Maybe it also fills you with a little dread, since passages like these are a little cryptic and hard to understand. So I hope to enlighten you a little today, if that's the case for you. But what this is, well, it is something that should give us hope for the future.

I want to read it today as a passage that should give you hope for right now, that should be not a description of something that we will enjoy in the distant future when we are with Jesus, but something that we can enjoy now.

This is a picture of the Church, of what the Church should be, what the Church is, and how the Church is built up. And so as Isaiah gives us this passage, seeing these words, having them so strongly impressed upon him that he uses the word see as though it were visual, that is the hope I would like for us to have today.

The Latter Days as the New Testament Era

Verse 2 says, "...it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills, and all nations shall float to it.".

So it speaks here of the latter days, and when you think of latter days, you probably think of days latter to now. Isaiah wasn't writing right now, right? He was writing a long time ago. So the latter days for him are not the same thing as latter days that we think of when we think of latter days.

And the way we should read this passage is as the Apostles would read this passage, and the Apostles would frequently look at passages like these, see talk of latter days, and interpret this as speaking of now, now that Christ has come.

To give you a few examples of that, I could start off with Hebrews 1. Hebrews 1, 1 through 2 says, "...at many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.".

So here you have the last days as referring to now, the New Testament era, right? Not in times that we might think about with Antichrist coming, things like that. The last days are now for Hebrews 1. And to give you another example, if you'll turn to Acts 2, Acts 2 quotes Joel and interprets Joel as speaking of now.

Peter's speaking, and he says in verse 16, "...but this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel, and in the last days, last days, it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.".

And then he goes on to explain that this is what is happening in their presence at that time through Pentecost. For the New Testament, the last days are typically applying to this time of Christ, this time after Christ's ministry.

Now, to give you one more example, in Hosea 3, it talks about the latter days. And I want to show you how the latter days there, even though we don't have a passage in the New Testament that I'm aware of that directly quotes it, the latter days must refer to this time where Jesus offered us his gospel.

Hosea 3, 4 through 5, "...for the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods.". So this is talking about how Israel's not going to have a king for a period of time, right?

Something that ends up being fulfilled. Hosea, by the way, is writing at the same time as Isaiah, their contemporaries. "...afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.".

So here you have the mention of the latter days, and you have this mention that the people are going to return to David their king. So you have this restored Davidic king. And how does the New Testament understand that Davidic king?

That final Davidic king, no more to come after him, is Jesus. So we are right to, when we see this statement of latter days, think that it's more likely talking about this era that we live in than it's talking about sometime in the far future.

Another key to let us know that this is largely talking about now is that it mentions Zion. And the New Testament, when it speaks of Zion, once again speaks of now. It speaks of the church. So in Hebrews 12 .22, in Hebrews 12 .22, it says, "...but you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, to heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering.".

The idea is, in speaking to Christians, the author of Hebrews is saying that you have come to Mount Zion. You are already, you are already at this restored Zion. Not the physical place Zion, which is the mountain on which the temple was built in Jerusalem, but you have come to Mount Zion as being part of the church.

2nd Peter illustrates this also. 2nd Peter, get there eventually. Excuse me, 1st Peter. 1st Peter 2, verse 4, "...as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men...". This is Jesus. Jesus is the living stone.

"...but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves are like living stones. You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, through Jesus Christ.".

So here you have a picture of Jesus being this cornerstone, and then others being built around him, forming places acceptable for worship, like a temple, right? These people, these New Testament saints, are being built up into a church.

And then he says explicitly, "...for it stands in Scripture, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.". And Peter, right now, is quoting none other than Isaiah when he's saying this.

So when Isaiah is talking about this future Zion, where this chief cornerstone is going to be put, and all these others are going to be built around it, he is talking about the building up of the church.

And we have every reason to look at Isaiah 2 and understand him. As the Apostles are showing us, he is talking about the church. So this is a this is a key insight into reading Isaiah, and it's going to dictate how we look at the rest of the book as we go through it.

You know, Lord willing, when I get the opportunities to preach on it. I know it hasn't been that frequently. But it also should give you a little insight as you open up the Bible for yourselves, as you're trying to study these things.

And I hope that the temptation to just pass over hard passages doesn't get you, but that you're willing, especially with insights like these, to peer a little harder and to think, how would, how does the New Testament illuminate what this passage should be meaning for me?

What this, what this passage, what the Holy Spirit intended by giving us this passage that's, you know, shrouded in mystery, but in the New Testament it speaks of that mystery being revealed through the gospel.

Zion Exalted Above the Mountains by the Gospel

And that is, that is how Zion is built up. It is through the gospel. So if you look at the latter half of, sorry, the first half of, oh wait, where am I? Oh, latter half of verse 3. For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

This is explaining how Zion is going to be built up, how it is going to be exalted. It is going to be built up by the word of God, by the law of God going forth. Now right here, when it says the law and it says his word, those two are in parallel.

He means the same thing. It is God's law, and at that time, law refers to the books of Moses. It's God's word that is going forth that builds up Zion. And when is it that that happens? Through the gospel, God's word goes out to all peoples, and it builds up this church.

And if you, you know, if you look, it talks about, in verse 2, it talks about the Zion being established above all the other mountains. When I grew up, or when I was being raised, I was taught that this referred to the literal mountain of Zion literally growing taller than all the other mountains and being higher than them.

That's not, that's not what this means. The significance of mountains and temples at that time was that various gods lived on mountains, and the closer they were to the heavens, the closer they were to that God.

And it is through this word being preached that people see that Zion, God's kingdom, is higher than all the other kingdoms. It is the one that is closest to the heavens. Out of Zion goes the law, and this answers the question of, given the previous path, the previous chapter, how is it that God is going to judge this people that is disobeying him, and at the same time redeem this people?

Those two, those two don't exactly stand in harmony, but looking back, we can see that, while he does end up destroying Zion, there is, you know, a destroyed temple in 70 AD. There is a movement on from this old Zion, but he builds up, he builds up the church.

This new Zion composed of not just Jews, but Jews and Gentiles, people from all over the world. And so I hope, I hope you are encouraged to to spread that word that builds it up. Imagine if, imagine if somebody said, you know, I hiked Mount Shasta, or I hiked, you know, I grew up in the Appalachian region, and I felt like those mountains were the highest mountains in the world.

That would, that would be a silly statement, and you might want to correct that person, because you know that Everest is the highest mountain, and it is the highest mountain because we have an objective standard of height.

Well, we have a way to let people know that God's kingdom is higher than all the other kingdoms. His mountain is higher than all the other mountains, and that is that his gospel is greater than all the other Gospels.

This gospel of Jesus Christ dying for sins, offering us his grace freely, is something so much greater than anything the world has to offer. This is what makes Zion greater. And it's not as though Zion was small, and then through the gospel, Zion becomes greater.

God's kingdom, God's authority over the earth has always been great, but in the eyes of men, Zion is nothing more than a hill of sand. But as you tell others about the gospel in their eyes, it has the potential to become much, much greater for them to recognize what it is, the great kingdom that it is.

Christ’s Judgment, the Peace of the Gospel, and the End of War

Verse 4, he shall judge between the nations, he shall decide disputes for many peoples. This speaks of God's active participation in that kingdom. When it talks of judging between the nations, don't think of judging as in condemnation.

Think of judging as the Old Testament judges in the book of Judges led the people. This is talk about him actively participating in leading the people. He's actively doing that. And he has, Jesus came to earth to establish the church, and when he left, he sent out his apostles to give us his word, and he sent his Holy Spirit, by which we have the ability to interpret that word and see that word for what it is.

I've had bosses in the past, particularly one I'm thinking of, where he would never give me any direction, and when it would come times for our personal one-on-one meeting, he would just suddenly disappear.

And, you know, he worked in the same office space as me, and he would just be gone. He would never be there for me, to lead me. It's not like that. It's not like Jesus has just, you know, disappeared, and now we're left to figure this out on our own.

He has sent us his Holy Spirit, by which we can understand his judgments, and we can be underneath his leadership, being judged by him, having clarity for ourselves, and having a clarity that we can declare to others.

So I hope that, as you see this, that you will be encouraged to have that, to be under that judgment, not just in saying that you respect the Word of God, but going to the Word of God frequently, to be led by Christ, knowing that he has given us his Holy Spirit to lead us.

And these are judgments that can be, that should give clarity to others as well. These are things that should be proclaimed even outside these walls. "...and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.". So this speaks of the peace that is provided by that gospel. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can have peace.

Now, many have interpreted this not understanding that context of the way the New Testament treats these passages, and to promote pacifism, that every Christian should be a pacifist. Romans 13, chapter 24 of our Confession, they both talk about the right use of the sword and exercising justice.

So that is not what this passage is about. It is about the peace that we can have with each other and with God through the gospel. Primarily, this is talking about the peace we have with each other. It says, "...nation shall not lift up sword against nation.".

We, gathering in this place, are many nations gathered together. There are a lot of places that aren't as diverse as this area, and so maybe they are only composed of one nation, but they would readily accept us, any one of us, if we came in because of that wonderful peace that God has given us.

If you think about some of the main problems the world is wrestling with right now, one of the big ones is diversity, and how do we get along with other people who have different backgrounds than us, different experiences than us?

How do we acknowledge that and get along with them in a way that does not promote hostility? Now, I don't want to pretend that that's not a real problem, or that it's, you know, it's easy to wave away, but the answer, in some sense, is very simple.

We have it right here. Through the gospel, through the gospel, we can be reconciled to any other person that we have differences with. If we share that same hope of salvation in Jesus Christ, people that you see on TV, the people that, you know, you hear talking about how to solve these problems, different mechanisms, if they don't involve the gospel, they are secondary routes to peace.

The only route, the true peace between man and man, is through the gospel. And secondarily, this talks about the peace that we have with God. The swords and the plowshares is an interesting phrase, because it comes up a couple other times in the Bible.

In Micah 4, it comes up, actually, this whole passage is repeated in Micah 4, and it also comes up in Joel, but in Joel, it's reversed. It's the other way around. It's not swords and the plowshares, but plowshares and the swords, and it's talking about God's judgment upon the land.

So that's that's the idea. It's talking about peace, and it's talking about a peace that we can have not just with each other, but a peace that we can have with God. Through the gospel, Jesus taking the hostility that was due to us from God, we can have peace with him.

If you were to be able to go outside and see all the spiritual battles that exist as though they were physical battles, I would wonder what that would look like. Would it sound like a bunch of gunshots?

Would it look like little explosions? Or imagine, you know, a hundred mushroom clouds over every little house. The world is in a terrible place where they don't have peace with God, and they largely don't have peace with each other.

We have something precious, and it's rare that we sit to think about how precious it is that we have peace with each other, that we have peace with God— something that few people can experience. This is a wonderful gift that should be shared, and if we were aware of just how desperate the world is for it, maybe we would be more eager to share that with them.

Come, Let Us Go to the House of the Lord

If you look at verse 3 again, it says, "...and many peoples shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths.".

I hope that looking at this passage and seeing the hope it gives you for what the Church is and what the Church ought to be, and that expansion of Christ's kingdom that happens through the Church, that will encourage you to make this your call, that you can say to others, Come, let us go to the house of the Lord.

Let us come and gather as a church, as a temple where God dwells and where worship happens, and be led by him and judged by him, and have clarity in our lives. Come, let us go to the house of the Lord.

I think that can be your call to yourself when you're not at peace with others, your brother and sister, when you're not at peace with God, that you can say to yourself, Come, let us go to the house of the Lord.

Let us gather together and worship God. Let us be led by him. I hope this can be your call to each other when you see a brother or sister that is struggling in their life, who has problems, who is not at peace with others, it's not at peace with God, that you can say, Come, let us go to the house of the Lord.

I hope that this can be your call to the world, to those who do not have peace at all, in any measure. I pray that you can go to them and that you can say, Come, let us go to the house of the Lord. Let us join together as a church.

Let us worship him. Let us be led by him. I hope that this fills you up with such hope that your mouth cannot be shut and that you will be so eager to share this with others that you will, that the fear that typically extinguishes our evangelistic urges would be driven away by the hope that this passage gives, by the picture of this kingdom and how real it is, even though you may, like the unbeliever, just see it as a hill of sand, that thinking on this will let you realize that Zion has been listed above every other mountain.

It is the greatest kingdom on earth and it deserves to be proclaimed. And to ease which with, you can tell one another, Come, let us go to the store. Come, let us go to the movies. You can say, Come, let us go to the house of God.

That is my prayer for you today. I'll close in prayer. Father, thank you for what you have done in sending us your Son and giving us your gospel and building up this church. Thank you for that bloodshed that gives us peace with God and with man.

I pray that you would fill our hearts with hope and that you would fill us with zeal so that we would call to one another and say, Come, let us go to the house of the Lord. I pray that you would lead us into all truth.

In Jesus' name, Amen.