Dennis Tuuri

Then Agrippa said unto Paul, “Thou art permitted to speak for thyself.” Then Paul stretched forth the hand and answered for himself. I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee, touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews, especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently.

My manner of life from my youth, which is at the first among my known nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews which knew me from the beginning if they would testify that after the most straightest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers. Unto whom promise are 12 tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come.

For which hope’s sake King Agrippa I am accused of the Jews? Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead? I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, which thing I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints that I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests. And when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them, and I punished them often in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme.

And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. Whereupon, as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priest, at midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me, and them which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest? But rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose—to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient under the heavenly vision, but showed first unto them of Damascus, and in Jerusalem and throughout all the coasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. For these causes the Jews sought me in the temple and went about to kill me. Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day witnessing both to small and great, saying none of the things that those which the prophets and Moses did say should come, that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles.

And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself, much learning doth make thee mad. But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. But the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely, for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him. For this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets?

I know that thou believest. And then Agrippa said unto Paul almost thou persuadeest me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am except these bonds. And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and the governor and Bernice, and they that sat with them, when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, “This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds.” And then said Agrippa unto Festus, “This man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed unto Caesar.”

Please be seated. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit would illumine this text for understanding, would give light to us. Let’s pray. Father, we do pray that your Holy Spirit would indeed be with us, Lord God, giving us light from these texts, shining forth into the darkness of our souls, the corners of our souls that remain hidden from you—not from your knowledge, but we try to keep hidden from you because we have sinned.

Help us, Lord God, to let that light penetrate, to do its cleansing act in our life and prepare us Lord God for lives of consecration to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ who has brought us out of darkness and into light. In his name we pray. Amen.

As our Savior ascended into heaven, he commanded that repentance should be preached in his name and that repentance should be preached to all men to Jews and Gentiles. We see and have seen the Apostle Paul preaching that repentance unto kings and governors unto Jews and Gentiles unto the small and great assembled in the sovereignty of God to hear the message of darkness to light. The message that brings light into darkened corners and that shines forth the light from the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul acts as a lightbearer here and that lightbearing has a relationship to repentance.

Our lives are to be marked as we said last week and by way of review by repentance. Repentance is a word that we should understand. Repent is a word we should use. Confession of sin is a daily act that we should involve ourselves in. The scriptures tell us indeed that our repentance is tied to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we looked last week and saw the relationship of repentance to the death, to the resurrection, and to the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Repentance relative to conviction of past sin—to be brought to a position of contrition over sin. But repentance also involves a turning to God. Repentance involves a resurrection then as well as a death, a confession of sin and a turning to God. And repentance also carries with it fruits worthy fit for repentance. Those works are the works that proclaim forth the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ in everything that we put our hand to do and particularly in reference to those sins that we have committed—our works of repentance are to put the positive action toward what we have negatively done and affecting other men and affecting the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So our repentance which is to be a daily affair for us—we should have lives marked by repentance—is tied to our understanding and appropriation of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is his life being lived out in us. It is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ that is being lived out in the context of the church in the book of Acts and the accounts of which we have read for several years now.

And the summation of all this is found in Paul’s preaching in obedience to the Lord’s command—repentance to men and not a simple repentance of just sorrow or even a sorrow for results, but a sorrow because of the offense we have given to God. And then a sorrow that leads us to turn to God and then be empowered for ministry and service—service to reform our lives and to bring light into this world.

Calvin said that if we would stand in Christ, we must aim at repentance. We must cultivate it during our whole lives and continue it to the last. The Christian life is simply, as Calvin put it, the constant practice of repentance. Now, that sounds odd to us if we think of repentance only in the sense of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus and the appropriation of his death. But if you understand the biblical teaching, that we explained last week of the movement from death to life to ascension to going out into the world, then you’ll understand that what Calvin said is certainly right on target.

Our life is to be hid with Christ. We’re to have Jesus Christ at the center of our life. And that means to have the doctrine of repentance in its three-fold aspect applied to everything that we do and say. And if your life is not marked by a cultivation of the doctrine of repentance, then it is not marked as it were by an identification with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now consider this last week and how much you cultivated repentance in your life and you’ll understand the depth of our sin, our rebellion against God and the need to return to him with all our hearts to be smitten by his word and to reconsecrate ourselves anew to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Repentance. Lamentations 3:40 says, “Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord.” One of the preconditions for repentance is a discernment, a self-evaluative process by which we search our ways. And of course, that search goes on in the context of community. It goes on in our own individual prayer closet, so to speak. It goes on in our own lives. But it also goes on in the opening up of ourselves to each other for a searching of us so that we can be given sight for those things that we intentionally and willfully blind our eyes to do.

Ezekiel 18:30 says, “I will judge you, O house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, sayeth the Lord God. Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin.” If we fail to examine ourselves, our iniquities and sins will become our ruin. Goes on to say in verse 31 of Ezekiel 18, “Cast away from you all your transgressions, for by ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart and a new spirit, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” Serious stuff then.

Self-evaluation and repentance. Hosea 12:6, “Therefore turn thou to thy God, keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.” Self-evaluation is a prerequisite of the Christian life to evaluate our deeds and actions and to allow them to have the light of fellow members of the community of the Lord Jesus Christ also shine that light into our lives that we might evaluate ourselves and come to repentance.

Wallace speaking of Calvin’s doctrine of nurture and discipline says this: The benefits of self-examination is a theme to which Calvin often returns. Self-examination should prepare us better to receive the grace of God. If it leads to our finding anything good within us, it should lead to our celebrating the free and undeserved glorious grace and goodness of God for such a wonderful gift. So as we evaluate ourselves and see good work we should praise God for those good works because they’re the free gift of his grace.

It should make us realize that we ourselves are very near to the evils we sometimes have to condemn and rebuke in others. And therefore with hating evil the more it can make us far more mild and gentle in our judgments if we examine ourselves before we judge other men. So it also leads us to a lessening of a severity of our judgments of others as we see how close we are to those very sins. It should help to prepare us for the final judgment.

For it is better to face our sins now than to wait till God opens the books when it’ll be too late for us to condemn ourselves. It enable us to prevent us from being overwhelmed by our temptations. For it will give us a better knowledge of where we are weak and of how weak we are. And it will enable us to eradicate those evil affections through which Satan is able to gain possession of our lives.

Self-evaluation and discernment. I hope you practice that in your life this past week. I hope you commit yourselves here as you come before the Lord and the light of his word to live a life marked by self-examination and repentance in its full sense and identification with the Lord Jesus Christ in his death, his resurrection, and his ascension. We turn now to another three-fold mentioning of a truth in this tremendous summation sermon of the Apostle Paul.

His proclamation of the good news of the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ to the throne. Three times the Apostle Paul mentions the word light in the context of his message here in Acts 26. Your outline shows the first three points, those verses being verse 13, verse 18, and then again in verse 23. Verse 13, Paul reciting his conversion on the road to Damascus. He says, Midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun.

First light that comes to the Apostle Paul is one that kills him. He falls down as it were dead symbolically being cast down to the dust of the earth. The first light that comes forth from God is associated, I believe, with the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and the death and judgment due to sinners. The second reference to light is in verse 18 where Paul says that he was sent by God to open the eyes of the people that he would go to and then to turn them from darkness to light.

So again, we have this appropriation of the resurrection. It’s not simply a death light. It is a resurrection light because it brings light and awareness into our being. Light is something that must be perceived. Light has two components to it. You know, if a tree falls in the forest, is there sound found? Well, in one sense there isn’t, or there isn’t. If a light shines and the eye can’t see it, is there light to the person?

There isn’t. We don’t have the ability to perceive or discern light as it comes forth from God. The scriptures tell us that we are spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins. Our eyes don’t work by way of the analogy here to physical vision. We are blind. We have scales upon our eyes in terms of spiritual discernment. And when God comes to awaken us and to move us from sleep or death to life. He does a couple of things.

He brings his word and understanding to us, but he also prepares our eye, our understanding, our heart to receive that word. Both things are involved in the turning of a person from darkness to light. In his grace, he brings his word. But by his grace also, he must enable us by regenerating us and by sovereignly moving to open our eyes to our sins, into our darkness, prepare our eyes for the reception of light.

And so we have in verse 18 the second reference to light. In verse 23, we have a final reference. And here we have another summation statement of Paul and his ministry. He’s continuity of the Old Testament being asserted in verse 22. And the central message of the Old Testament New Testament, of the scriptures, and of all of history is that Christ should suffer, that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people to the Gentiles.

And you’ll recognize this as the third part of our exposition of the doctrine of repentance and identification with the Lord Jesus Christ and his ascension and reign and in proclaiming his light, his gospel, his message to the nations. And so I think we see in this three-fold repetition of the light that shines forth from the Lord Jesus Christ, a reference by way of implication at least to his death, to his resurrection, and to his ascension.

There is a crucifixion light then that shines in verse 13. There is a resurrection light that shines in verse 18. And there is, I believe by way of application, an ascension light that shines in verse 23. Now, if we’re going to talk about light, we need to know a little bit about darkness. What is the darkness that is spoken of in the context of the need for enlightenment?

Darkness refers, of course, to lack of knowledge or instruction refers to an inability to understand intellectually concepts. But more than that, it speaks to a life marked by foolishness. In Romans chapter 2, for instance, when we read that the rebellious Jews that they are confident that they are a guide to the blind, a light of them which are in darkness and then it goes on to explain what that means, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes. So light is darkness is identified with the foolishness of people, not simply a complete absence of light but rather an actual walking in foolishness.

Darkness is related to death but is related not simply to a lack of knowledge or life. It is related to ignorance as well as to misery. It is related to our suffering in the context of our own darkness. It’s as if the blind walk around bumping into bad things that prick them all the time. They are foolish. And so darkness, the darkness in which we find ourselves, because of our sin is to be understood in a far broader sense than simple lack of knowledge.

Darkness involves sorrow. It involves calamity in general as Calvin would say. It involved by way of picture Israel’s sufferings in Egypt, the suffering of God’s people in captivity. It involves our sin and misery. Remember the Heidelberg Catechism. What three things do you need to know to live and die happily in this comfort? The first, how great my sin and misery is. Sin and darkness is related to misery.

Nowhere probably is this pointed out in a more effectual way than in Psalm 107. Psalm 107 begins by saying, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.” Now, he’s going to go on to talk about how he redeems those who are in darkness. This whole picture in Psalm 107 is of those who are in sin and darkness.

And one of the aspects of darkness is captivity. Darkness and the captivity in Egypt as Pharaoh turned bad so to speak. Captivity in the exiles referred to as darkness by the prophets. So our darkness in which we find ourselves involves captivity. Verse four, they wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. This is again related to darkness.

Darkness is not simply an absence of knowledge. It is a positive suffering and misery and calamity that our lives are marked by. You know, we’re so foolish in our darkness. We’re like that drunk man the Proverbs talks about. He doesn’t even know when stripes are being laid aside. You know, I’ve seen people like that. I was in San Francisco several years ago. And there was a man so drunk. It was a vending booth and there were people trying to sell art exhibits and these drunks would wander around and sit in front of him that drove off the tourists.

So the guy who ran the exhibit went out and started kicking this drunk in the side. The drunk didn’t even know he was being kicked. He was conscious, mind you. He didn’t really feel. He felt no pain. I was real damaged done to his body. No doubt. Well, that’s a picture of us in our darkness. We are foolishly wandering, thirsty, and hungry. And yet, we don’t even know it. The ungodly think that he’s fine.

But no, darkness is related to positive suffering. Verse 9, he satisfies the longing soul, fills the hungry with goodness. Such as sin in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron because they rebelled against the words of God and condemned the most high. Therefore, he brought down their heart with labor. Darkness is related to labor and servitude to sin. They fell down and there was none to help.

They cried unto the Lord in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and out of the shadow of death and break their bands in sunder. Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted. Their soul abhores all manner of meat and they draw near unto the gates of death and they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he saves them out of their distress.

He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions. And Paul says that he was in darkness. He was one of those about to perish. He was one who was raving against the church of Jesus Christ in his madness, persecuting the Lord Jesus. And God sent his word. He sent his son to the Apostle Paul and healed him and delivered him from the deadly darkness that all unregenerate men find themselves in and which Christians all too often return to.

So God into this darkness brings forth light. And as I said, I believe that it’s appropriate application of these texts to say that the first light is the light of judgment. Now, we don’t usually think of it that way. We usually think of light as a good thing. We went to the coast for a few days this last week because it was light. It was sunshiny at the coast. We want sunshine. People want sunshine. But, you know, if you’re out in the sunshine too much, you know it’s not particularly good for you in various ways.

Your skin gets weird and you can actually get cancer apparently from being in the sunshine too much. You get a little bit closer to that nice bright shining orb in the sky that we all like to bathe in the warmth of and you don’t bathe in the warmth of it anymore. You be burned up by that sun as you get closer and closer to it. And God’s word says that light that shines forth from God isn’t just a good thing.

It is also a judging thing. It’s a bad thing and not a bad thing, but it is a it is a destructive element as well to it. In the providence of God, his light is compared to a burning. John 5:35 says that he that is Jesus was a burning and a shining light. And you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. He’s a shining light. He brings illumination, but he’s a burning light as well. He brings judgment.

Malachi 4:1, “Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, gay, and all that do wicked shall be stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up, sayeth the Lord of hosts. We don’t want that kind of light, do we? But that’s only how you get to the light that shines is by going through the light that burns, the light of judgment, the light of identification with Christ in his death.

Psalm 19 is a picture of this sun that goes forth circuit to circuit, rides its way across the heavens, so to speak. As we watch the sun proceed, we see light coming in these windows. The sun proceeds And Psalm 19 says that’s the Lord Jesus in them that is in the earth, the ends of the world. He has set a tabernacle for the son, which as a bridegroom comes out of his chamber, rejoices as a strong man to run a race, is going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit under the ends of their and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

Nothing hid from the heat thereof. That heat is warmth, but that heat is also judgment and burning. That’s why trees are a good thing and God also comes in clouds. He protects his people from that light of his judgment covenantally in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is that tree which we’re placed in the context of to be shaded from the light of God’s judgment. Isaiah 10:17, the light of Israel shall be for a fire and his holy one for a flame.

It shall burn and devour his thorns and his briars in one day. So there is a crucifixion light. There is on the road to us for Paul, a light that knocks him to the ground. A light that first of all shines in judgment, evaluation of his wicked deeds and burns him up. There is a judgment light and there must be a judgment light in our lives. God shines that light into our sins. Not for the purpose of killing us, but for the purpose of what?

Well, burning out the dross, right? Everything that isn’t silver and gold that’s refined by that light is burned out of our lives day by day, week by week, month by month. I don’t know if many of you watched the big football game, not big another University of Oregon football game yesterday. A lot of passes going on. But you know, the Christian life is not a lot of long 40, 50 yard game passes. The Christian life is primarily a grinded out sort of affair.

It’s three and four yards at a clip up the middle. It’s hard work. And that hard work is the appropriation first of all of this crucifixion light from God relative to our sins day by day, week by week. If you wait till the end and throw up a hail mary pass at the end of your life thinking to escape the judgment of God, it you’re not going to be caught. Not going to be caught. We want to grind it out. And the way we grind it out is first by the appropriation of the crucifixion light of the Lord Jesus Christ and identification with his death.

But there’s also as we move through that, Paul is also moved then to the resurrection light, the light of birth, the light of creation. After all, God said in Genesis 1 and he brings forth light. Let there be light and there was light and God saw the light and the light was good and God divided the light from the darkness. He brings light creation birth to the world. Job 3:16 he speaks of a hidden untimely death or birth rather I had not been as infants which never saw light.

And so Job says that when an infant’s brought forth it’s rather obvious thing but it’s an important by way of analogy here. He’s brought forth into light. A child that b dies before it’s born is never brought forth into the light. And so there’s this association of light from God, not just with death, with resurrection, with birth, and with creation. So Luke 16:8 and other places of the gospel, we read that we are children of light.

We’re progeny of light. We come from the father through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and his humanity. And we’re identified with that light in our birth and by our inheritance. That’s who we are. We’re children of light. And so there is resurrection light that we apply to ourselves as well. There’s an appropriation of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so light kills us and light raises us back up.

But if this is the message we take to the nations, this is the message of light that we send forth. And our word, the word of God through us brings light to the nations. That’s what we’re talking about here. We all know those texts. Light to the Gentiles. What does it mean? It means that our word brings light of judgment. You don’t walk around just trying to wake people up to their intellectual errors. That’s not the light of the scriptures.

It has an intellectual component. But the first component is a light of judgment to burn them up, to bring them to repentance. Paul says at the very end of his talk, he says that he’s been doing this message of taking a light to the Gentiles and to the people, the people, the Gentiles. And then right after that, immediately after the statement of that, at the end of his apology or his defense or his proclamation, that’s when Festus says, “Paul, you’re mad.” Cuz see, it hits home now.

That first searing light of judgment by Paul is what he hits home to the Gentiles and the people, to Festus and to Herod, the representatives of the Rome, the Gentiles, and of the church of that, the Old Testament church, Israel, the people. And they both then react because he’s at the climax of his sermon and he says at this light of judgment goes out to Jew and Gentile alike. And then both Gentile and Jew oppose.

Wait, wait, wait a minute. Now you’re going to burn that stuff out. You’re going to throw that laser beam on me. Festus says, Paul, you must be mad. No, Paul is applying the light. And if you’re going to go out into this world as lightbearers, which is what your task is to be, then you go out shining a light that is both judgment as well as resurrection. Now to those who are elect in Christ, it’s all it is judgment.

That’s the message you’re commissioned by God to take out. But there’s this third light, the light of ascension, guidance, and direction. 1 John 2:8, John says again, “A new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you.” Why is it new? Why is it a new commandment? Because the darkness is passed and the true light now shines. Something happened when the Lord Jesus came. The world moved in to darkness to light.

John says, “Now we have a new commandment because the darkness has passed and the true light now shines.” The Lord Jesus has come and the world has moved from twilight to sunrise. It’s moved from midnight really to the rising of the sun. And all history now will be marked by light shining where there was darkness before. In times past, things were overlooked. You were off there in the darkness. Now the light goes everywhere with the coming of the Lord Jesus.

There is a resurrection light, but there is also an ascension light. The ascension of Christ to the throne from which now the light goes forth into all the world. God comes in a special unique way in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost and he is the lightbringer as well. He comes to reveal the son and the father and now he indwells his people. And now you’re all temples of the living God.

And in the context of the temple, centralized temple in the Old Testament, there was a light. There’s a lampstand light coming out of there. And now you’re all temples of the living God. The Holy Spirit indwells you in a way which the Holy Spirit did not indwell people in the darkness of the old covenant until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now that he’s come, we are light beams shed out into all this world.

Light. There’s ascension light. Isaiah is filled with the references we’re all real familiar with. Isaiah chapter 9, people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shine. Now, it’s multiplied the nation and not increased the joy. In other words, what that means, I think, is you’ve increased multiplied the nation, is a reference to the incoming of the Gentiles, I believe, in a way that you’ve not yet increased the joy, but now they do joy before thee according to the joy in harvest.

And as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. You see, the light is an ascension light that goes forth into all the world. All the earth is lightened. The mult the nation is multiplied. the addition of the Gentiles and then the joy then is also increased as the joy of harvest. He broken the yoke of his burden, the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppression in the day of Midian. And then this ascension light is spoken of in other passages in Isaiah of course too.

Isaiah 42 verse 5, God has created the heavens, stretched them out, should spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it, and he hath given breath unto the people into it, and spirit them that walked therein. I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

Isaiah 49. Many texts tell us about this ascension light, that this light is not just individual moving us individually from death to resurrection. It is a light of ascension. It shines forth into all the earth now. Now, things are different now. The world is going to be characterized by light and not darkness. He opens the blind eyes. He brings them out of the prison house. Isaiah 60. Arise, shine, for the light is come.

The glory of the Lord is driven upon thee. Behold, the darkness shall cover the earth. Gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be sent upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. If light means nothing else in the New Testament, it means that we are now in time when God’s message goes out to lighten the whole earth, the end result of the church age is not darkness.

The end result of the church age is a shining globe or orb offering up praise to God. Everything is different now. Why is it different? Because the Lord Jesus has come. And we know that light has shone forth with the coming of the Lord Jesus. And we know the world has moved from death to life. And we know that no longer will God overlook the sins of the past. In the scriptures, in the New Testament, we read again and again that there is a coming judgment upon the world that will come very quickly.

I want to just spend a little bit time of this, not a whole lot, but it’s relevant to the topic because I want to help you to understand that this third light we’re talking about, ascension light, is one that means that the light of the gospel will go forth to enlighten the whole earth. And I want to bolster you in the confidence of that and the knowledge of that. We’re going to sing from Isaiah about that light that beams from Zion Hill.

I want you to understand those are really the times in which we live. Now things have changed. In Matthew chapter 23, the Lord Jesus said, speaking to the people in Jerusalem, that you’re witnesses unto yourselves that you are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers, ye servants, you generation, you serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?

Wherefore, behold, I said unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city. Now, that’s what we’ve read about in the book of Acts. This is Jesus talking to the Jews of his day. He says, “You’re the offspring of your father, the devil. You’re the same group of people that for thousands of years have killed the prophets, and you’re going to kill me, and after I’m resurrected, I’m going to send another witness to you, and you’re going to kill the church.

You’re going to persecute them.” And Paul makes reference to that of himself personally. The book of Acts is characterized by this martyrdom of Stephen, the killing of James, the persecution that comes upon the people. And this is what’s happening. They’re going out and he says, Some of them ye shall kill and crucify and of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city.

This is what Paul was doing. Paul was a representative of what Jesus is talking about here of apostate Israel that now persecuted not just the prophets in the past, not just the Lord Jesus, but now the church as well, the witness of the Lord Jesus through his people. And then he says in verse 35 that upon ye may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of the righteous Abel unto the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation. The Old Testament that they had, the Jewish Old Testament was arranged so it went from Genesis not to Malachi but it ended with Chronicles. And so when he says Zechariah here, that refers to the killing of Zechariah at the conclusion of the book. So he’s kind of saying from the beginning to the end of the revelation of God. You guys had killed the prophets.

And now upon your head, upon this generation, upon you very people that I’m speaking to, he says, all the blood for these prophets and for me and for the people you will yet kill in the next 40 years, all that blood will call it vengeance from God and will come upon your head. You people contemporary to whom he was speaking to. Big things were happening. The culmination of God’s vengeance for all Old Testament sins, so to speak, all Old Testament martyrdoms, all Old Testament killing of the good brother by the bad brother, all Old Testament persecutions of the prophets of God who were killed for the word of their testimony according to the book of Revelation.

All that was going to be avenged now and brought to justice, so to speak, soon Jesus said. What’s he talking about? He’s talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. What else could he be speaking of? Something that’s going to happen a thousand years away. No, he says to you, to you very people, representative of all these past people, and now upon your head, upon this generation, this justice is coming forth.

Then he goes on to say very concretely, he says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, now has told the prophets, stoned them which were sent up unto you. How often I’ve gathered the children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wing, and you would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. I say unto you, you shall not see me henceforth. You see, so you shall say, blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

And Jesus went out, departed from the temple. And then so he now makes the house desolate by leaving just as God left in the Old Testament in the different time in the exile. The spirit of God departs the temple first, then destruction comes. Here Jesus departs the temple and he’s not going back. And then he immediately goes on to talk In chapter 24 verse 1, he shows him the temple and he says, “I say unto you, there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.” He’s talking about that temple.

He’s talking about those people and he’s talking about the culmination of the Old Testament age and God’s destruction upon Jerusalem soon to come in AD 70 after they had the second witness of the church and it killed some more of those guys. And so when we get to the revelation of John in chapter 1, We read in verse one that these are things which must shortly come to pass. Revelation is about what’s going to happen real quick now.

And he’s talking about the destruction of Jerusalem. Chapter 22. I come quickly. verse 7 verse 10. Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book for the time is at hand. Remember in Daniel’s time he said angel said seal up this part. It’s not going to be open yet. Now everything’s open. Now the judgments come forth. Now all those Old Testament sins are held to justice by God and he sends his judgment on the whole old creation order so to speak all of the old creation all of the history to that point in time judgment comes upon Jerusalem in AD 70 the time is at hand he says I come quickly to give to every man according to his works then in chapter 6 of Revelation he opens the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dust thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” This is Abel to Zechariah here. That’s what I believe it is. Abel to Zechariah sits under his throne, saying, “How long will it take? When will vengeance come forth?” We’ve been waiting a long time. With robes were gi white robes were given unto every one of them and said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow servants also in their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled.

And this is what Jesus was alluding to. He said that blood’s going to come upon you present generation upon this house. All these men that you killed and then you’re also going to kill more and scourge them, persecute them from city to city. And here in Revelation 6, we have these men that were killed for the testimony of God’s word. And then he says, “Yet a little while longer. Your brethren who are going to be killed, that’s got to be filled up, too.

We’re waiting until the book of plays itself out is what God is saying in the throne room here. We’re waiting until this next 40 years is completed because they’re going to kill more people then and then vengeance will come forth. Remember when we were going through First Thessalonians years ago, those of you who are here, remember that Paul wrote about the fact this very thing in his epistles, he said that you’ve suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us.

See, there’s the three-fold thing again: the prophets Jesus and us. And they please not God and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles. Why? That they might be saved, the Gentiles. Why have they done these things? To fill up their sins always. For the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. The wrath to the uttermost. And that’s what happens. Now, what does this have to do with light?

Well, God’s going to send a real big light in AD 70. And the world moves then from darkness to light. And That light doesn’t stop shining forth now. A tremendous movement from the old covenant to the new covenant times at the coming of the Lord Jesus because crucifixion light, resurrection light, ascension light, they’re all Jesus light. They’re all identification with the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we read in Isaiah 9 about the light that was going to come to the Gentiles, we read in verse 6, “Unto us a child is born.

This is the Lord Jesus. Jesus Isaiah 42 when we read about that great light God says I’ve called the in righteousness will hold your hand will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles this is the Lord Jesus to open the blind eyes in Isaiah 49 God says it is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob restore the preserve of Jacob or Israel rather I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth The light shines now and that light is the light of the Lord Jesus and his coming.

Isaiah 4:1, yes, that light will burn up some. That’s what we read earlier. But in verse two, unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness rise with healing in his wings. The Lord Jesus is that light. And yes, it’s a destruction light. But for those who are called and elect, it’s a resurrection and ascension light as well. And so when Jesus says in John chapter 8 that I am the light of the world, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but you’ll have the light of life.

This is a big deal. He’s identifying himself as the source of that crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension light. Jesus in chapter 2 of the Gospel of John, we read about the beginning of miracles that Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory, shown forth his light, beginning with the miracle at Cana, he began to manifest and shine that light that will never be put out from now on.

That light shines forth to light in the whole world. And all of history moves in relationship to the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what is that first miracle? It’s a miracle of joy. It’s a miracle of bringing wine to a wedding feast. The light that we rejoice in is the light of the Lord Jesus come to his people to s with them. It’s the marriage supper of the lamb by way of prefigurement. So the light of the Lord Jesus is a light of great blessing.

That light of the Lord Jesus should not be it is his light. He is the light but it should not be abstracted away from his word. We read that it is a word light as well. The identification of the Lord Jesus is with his word. The word of God is the word of the king. It’s Jesus’s words. And so it’s very appropriate to remember that Psalm 119:105 says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light into my path.” We don’t want to take away that.

We want to say, “Yeah, the Lord Jesus is shining.” And the way he shines on me to burn up my sins and to bring me to life and to empower me to take that light to the Gentiles is through his word. His word gives light and guidance to me. Isaiah 51:4 Jesus says, “A law shall proceed for me. I will make my judgment terrestrial light to the people, his word, his law, his judgments and ordinances.” That is the way the king communicates his light through that word.

It is a word light as well as Jesus’s light. Proverbs 6:23, the commandment is a lamp. The law is light. Reproofs and the reproofs of instruction are the way of life. Isaiah 8:20 to the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this word. It’s because there is no light in them. Don’t think that somehow we’re going to get light from Jesus apart from his word. His word brings us his light. It’s instruction.

Now, it’s got to be spiritually discerned. The Holy Spirit teaches us these things. But nonetheless, Psalm 19:8, statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. And that commandment is found in those statutes and judgments. So that resurrection, the crucifixion, resurrection, ascension light is Jesus light. It’s word light as well. And it is us light.

It is the church light. We are now the identified as that light. This is a miraculous, incredible thing. But this is what we read in the scriptures. Matthew 5:14, you are the light of the world. A city that said in a hill cannot be hid. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. You’re now the light. bear unto the light bear the Lord Jesus Christ empowered by him.

He shines through you. You’re those little temples running all over with lampstands in you.