Jacob's Stairway

I'd like to read again the first three verses of Isaiah 60. 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. In each of the passages that Mickey read this evening, the scripture was dealing with vision.

Vision in the sense that in some way God opens somebody's eyes and enables them to see something that the natural eye is not capable of seeing. Jacob falls asleep with his head upon that stone, and in his dream he sees this stairway resting upon the earth and extending all the way up to heaven, to another world. And the angels of God are ascending and descending upon this stairway.

And at the top of the stairway stands the God of Israel himself in glory. And when Jacob wakes up in the morning, he knows that this was not just another dream, but that that night he had been in the presence of the living God. And that God had revealed something to him, spoken to him.

And he made a covenant with God that affected the rest of his life. Cornelius, a Gentile professional soldier, is praying at three o'clock in the afternoon, the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And while he's praying, suddenly an angel appears to him and says to him, Cornelius, your alms and your prayers have ascended to God.

Sending out a joppa for one Simon, who is called Peter. And that vision, which came to Cornelius that afternoon, absolutely transformed his life. It was the turning point.

It was the means by which Cornelius also found his way to Jacob's stairway, to this link between earth and heaven, on which the angels of God ascend and descend, Jesus. The wise men were magi. They were of a priestly class in ancient Persia, Iran.

And it was customary for them, and they undoubtedly did this too, for them to delve into the occult, into astrology, into all kinds of spirit territory that is out of bounds for any Jew or any Christian. But this was all they knew. And as these men looked up and saw the sky, and beheld that star, they saw something nobody else did.

And they were given vision. And this vision that came to these men indicated that the stairway of Jacob had now come to rest upon the earth in the person of a newborn child, Israel's king. And they pursued the vision.

Now notice that in every case, vision came to ordinary people. There was nothing exceptional about any of those men. Jacob had his vision at a time when he was extremely selfish and crafty.

He had just cheated his brother out of the blessing of the Father. And long before that, he had cheated him out of his birthright. And he was running to keep from getting killed by Esau.

But he got a vision. Cornelius made his living by walking around with a sword strapped to his belt. These wise men didn't know any better than to delve and play around with dark spiritual fire.

But they likewise received vision that brought them to Jacob's stairway. Now if they were not in any way exceptional, ordinary people like ourselves, if they received vision, how is it that it came to them when so many others were bypassed? What was it that God saw as he looked into their hearts that encouraged him to visit these people with light? Thinking especially now of the wise men tonight, what was it that these men had about them that drew the light to them and enabled them to follow the light on to the fulfillment of the vision really? We need to know because we need to have more vision than we have now ourselves. We need to see Jacob's stairway also.

We need to know. We can't go by what people tell us. We can't go by what we read in books.

Everyone has to see for himself who this is, this Jesus, and find out for sure whether he is in fact Jacob's stairway. And we will receive vision. We can be absolutely sure that God will give to us the same light he gave to them if we will learn three lessons from the wise men even tonight.

First, vision comes to those who are prepared to let their lives become disrupted by the glory of God. Second, vision comes to those who are willing to seek. Very simple.

And third, vision comes to those who are prepared to be disrupted by the glory of God. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, Where is he who is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. Tremendous disruption.

These men are now talking, you know, in Jerusalem, trying to find out what the story is about this, but they'd already traveled hundreds of miles. Their lives had been really disrupted. And they were willing.

Now there were other wise men in Iran or Persia who knew just as much about the stars as these men did. But the difference is that these men somehow in their hearts are prepared when they see light to follow that light and move in that light even if it messes up their routine. And it did mess up their routine.

They left their homes, their work, their homeland and traveled for days and days and days westward looking for this child. What a wonderful thing, awesome thing, that they held loosely enough to their routine and to their lifestyle and to their possessions so that they could absolutely turn and go on a new path as soon as the light comes to rest upon that path. Now all through Scripture and all through the history of the kingdom of God we see this principle always operates.

Vision comes to those who are willing to be disrupted by light from God. Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. That means disruption.

It means get up! You can't sit around in those shadows anymore when the light has come to you. You have to get up and speak forth that light and live forth the light that has come. So the light came to Cornelius and he moved with it.

And the light came to Jacob and he began to bend his stiff neck. And the light came to these wise men and they went with this light. What will it be for us? This Christmas.

Is it going to be another routine Christmas? Same Christmas tree. Well, we bought a different one maybe. Maybe we pull it out of the attic.

Same lights. Same location. Same relatives.

Same menu. Everything the same. Now there's nothing wrong with that.

That can be very beautiful. But are we willing in the midst of all these things which are the same year after year, wonderful time, to allow for change? Are we prepared to open our hearts and bend them toward the light that comes to us even tonight? Change our ways? Our thinking? Whatever it is, are we willing to yield to the light that comes that's trying to bring us closer to Jacob's stairway so we can really see and be changed by this? Supposing the Spirit of the Lord would have us, for instance, set another place at the table tomorrow. You know, and invite so-and-so.

Or suppose the Spirit would like us to have dinner two hours later so so-and-so could come. Or maybe we could get some fellowship. Vision comes to those who seek.

And that's what these men did. They pressed their search. You know, they got the vision that told them about this trial, but now they have to find the fulfillment of the vision and they have to search for this.

And they pressed their search until it became, literally became prayer. And he sent them to Bethlehem saying, Go and search diligently for the child until you have found him. And then bring me word that I too may come and worship him.

When they had heard the king, they went their way. And lo, the star which they had seen in the east went before them till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding joy.

They knew that they were on to something. They had received some light from this star. It's like, but it's not clear enough, Lord.

You know, I see, but I have to have my vision more clear. I see men, but they look like trees walking. And so they kept pressing their search.

They asked questions. They get to Jerusalem, the capital city, the logical place. Where's this king? Nobody knows.

They go to Herod's palace. That ought to be a logical place. Was there a baby born here? Nobody knows.

They call out the theologian, the Bible scholars, Bethlehem. They keep going to Bethlehem. Now the star begins to guide them again.

And finally they find this child. It's always this way in the kingdom of God. Vision is always progressive.

If I use the light I have, I get more light. If I pursue the goal that God has set before me, then the goal becomes more clear. But I have to press.

God doesn't just give this to us on a silver platter. He holds out something. Now we go for it.

Now it becomes brighter. And this is especially true of our search to behold Jesus, to see Him. You know, to ask that God open our eyes and truly enable us to see who this is means that we have to back up our asking with a constant pursuit.

It's not just 20 minutes a day on our knees praying or walking back and forth, praying in the Spirit every day, asking for more light. That's great. But it has to be more than that.

It's got to be continuous pursuit. All the time in our daily living that we bring our minds back around every time they wonder, this is the one thing, the one thing, Lord, I want to know Jesus. I want to hear Him speak.

I want to know Him in the power of His resurrection and in the fellowship of His sufferings and become like Him in His death. I want to know Him so well that I'm willing and able to die for Him. Vision comes to those who worship, really worship.

When these men found a child, the first thing they did was prostrate themselves. They flattened their bodies out in front of this little baby in that manger. And then, they opened their bags and pulled out their treasure, the best, the most expensive treasures they had.

And going into the house, they saw the child would marry his mother and fell down and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. They worshiped Him with their hearts.

They offered themselves as a living sacrifice, their very bodies, falling down before this child. And then, they also worshiped Him with their substance. This is the common denominator of every human being that ever walks this earth, that ever has vision.

They worship God with their heart and with their substance. Cornelius feared God, gave alms liberally, and prayed to God all the time. Jacob, when he had that vision, poured oil over the stone where he had been lying, worshiped and committed himself to 10% of all he had from there on through.

The wise men fell down in front of the child with their bodies and then pulled out their treasure. Now, are we willing to do these two things? You know, to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, to prostrate ourselves in worship, and are we willing also to worship Him with our substance? Now, don't get nervous. There's not going to be an offering tonight.

Nobody's going to pass out pledge cards. That's not what we're talking about. What we're talking about is that the Lord will show us where He wants us to put our gold and frankincense and myrrh.

It may not even be in this place. It may be somewhere else. All we have to do is pour out the gold and the frankincense and myrrh before God and He'll show us where to put it.

He'll show us. Arise, shine, for your light has come. Vision.

And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. Jacob's stairway. Jacob's stairway is still here.

The angels of God ascend and descend upon it. The Father stands above it in another world. But in order to behold this stairway, in order to see Jesus for who He is and to be able to hear Him speak, we must have vision.

Fresh vision. Not last year's vision. Tonight's vision.

The Lord and giver of vision is in our midst. God the Holy Spirit is closer to us now than our breath. And He will indeed open our eyes, enable us to see and by what we see to be changed.

Three questions. Are we, tonight, prepared to allow our lives to be disrupted in whatever way God should choose by His glory? Are we willing to really, really see and keep seeking until our whole life becomes prayer? And are we willing to worship with our bodies presented as a living sacrifice and our treasure offered in thanksgiving to Him? Let's just take a moment in silence and just think about that. And then I'll announce the next thing.