May 25, 2006 The Ascension of Our Lord

"Not in Secret"

Isaiah 45:18-25

I N I

18. For this is what the LORD says-- he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited-- he says: "I am the LORD, and there is no other.

19. I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob's descendants, `Seek me in vain.' I, the LORD, speak the truth; I declare what is right.

20. "Gather together and come; assemble, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save.

21. Declare what is to be, present it-- let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me.

23. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.

24. They will say of me, `In the LORD alone are righteousness and strength.'" All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame.

25. But in the LORD all the descendants of Israel will be found righteous and will exult.

You know, things don’t change much. Secrets are often popular! Secret codes, secret plots, secret meanings, secret information – everybody wants to be "in the know." Take the fictional story The DaVinci Code for example. Every page you turn – another secret! Secrets are popular.

While The DaVinci Code is a book/movie of fiction, many people seem to hope that its fictional secrets are really true facts. That’s nothing new either.l Within the first 200-300 years after Christ, His followers rejected many false Gospels – books claiming to reveal secret information about Jesus. Many of these false gospels were from a group called the Gnostics (from a Greek word that means "to know"). They claimed that the New Testament Gospels didn’t tell the whose story, that being a Christian required insight into another deeper level of secret knowledge about Jesus. The church rejected those writings, not because they revealed unpleasant or embarrassing truth, but because they did not agree with the clear and honest accounts of the eyewitnesses who wrote (or were sources for) the real factual Gospels.

Secrets are often very popular. But that doesn’t make them true.

God makes it clear in Isaiah 45 – He does not speak in secret. He speaks the truth. He declares what is right. He foretells, and it comes to pass. He is the Lord. There is no other God. He is the righteous God and Savior. In Him is salvation; no other salvation is available or possible.

Not in secret! God is a God of revelation, not of cover-up. Mankind sinned, and God promised a descendant of the woman to crush the power of Satan and sin. Throughout the Old Testament God added more and more clarity to that promise. The Savior would be:

• A descendant of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Judah, of David.
• Born in Bethlehem, but called a Nazarene.
• A king, but a servant – especially one who would suffer for all people.
• One betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.
• One who would hang on a tree, be buried in a rich man’s grave.
• One who would see new life.

Not in secret. Some 300 promises in the Old Testament point to Him. All of the Old Testament testifies about Him. And He did come – this Messiah, this Savior, this Jesus, just as promised. And the four Gospels give us eyewitness accounts about Him – what He said, what He did, how He lived, how He died, how He arose from the dead, and how He ascended into the heavens.

Not in secret did this happen, but before the eyes of mankind.

Not in secret does the church carry out its mission today. Not in secret, but in the open – openly preaching and teaching God’s Word of Life, openly loving and forgiving sinners, openly baptizing into God’s family and communing His saints.

Not by secrets about Jesus are you saved, but by the clear, open Word of God. "In the Lord alone are righteousness and strength."

Secrets are often popular, but they are not always true.

Truth is not always popular, but it endures.

Tonight we celebrate – not in secret nor about secrets, we celebrate openly the truth of God’s Son, who died for our sins and arose to give us new life and ascended to rule all things for our good and who is coming again to bring us to be with Him forever.

Not in secret; but to our families, to our communities, to our world we proclaim Jesus Christ – righteous God and Savior. Amen.