THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WILL RISE
Malachi 4:1-3 - "Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the LORD Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things," says the LORD Almighty." (NIV)
When John the Baptist's father prophesied in Luke 1:78 he alluded to this verse and said that with the coming of Jesus the day was dawning from on high. The sun of righteousness was rising. And he has been rising all over this world ever since. And one day his rise will reach its noon day brightness and he will appear in glory and the final division between the believing and unbelieving will be made.
What does it mean for you today if you are a believing Christian? What could it mean for you and me? I saw five things to form an outline in this verse 2:
A rising sun
Beams of righteousness
Wings of healing
Breaking out of a stall and leaping out
Trample down the wicked into ashes
1.Jesus Christ is a Rising Sun.
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. - Psalm 37:5-7
It was Isaiah 60 that says about the Glory of Zion:
1 "Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
2 See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the LORD rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.
3 Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
4 "Lift up your eyes and look about you:
All assemble and come to you;
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters are carried on the arm.
5 Then you will look and be radiant,
your heart will throb and swell with joy;
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,
to you the riches of the nations will come.
2. The sun is a Son with beams of righteousness.
That means that Jesus makes things right. He makes man right with God through reconciliation. He makes man right with man through grace and humility and patience and love. The Sun of Righteousness is shining into our hearts with that glory permeating through that attracts many nations and people. People will just come because of the light and glory of God in us.
3. This Son of righteousness rises with healing in its wings.
I can remember the sunrise over the sea. When you wake up early in the morning and you will see how it happens on the rim of the ocean. A thin line of orange and red appears along the water. Then it intensifies, brighter and brighter, and you see the brightness focusing more and more on the center of the line, until the flaming ball surges up out of the water. And then you watch it rise up, and in a sense it brings that whole red line on the rim of the rim of the water up into the air as though the sun had wings. Wings are for protection and in this case healing too.
The Sun of Righteousness is WILLING to HEAL! Matthew 8:3
Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.”…
Do you know that it is God’s will for you to be healed? In fact, Jesus always healed the sick who came to Him. The blind, lame, maimed, mute, deaf and demon-possessed — He healed them all. (Matthew 8:16) If Peter’s shadow could healed the people of his time then the shadow of Jesus wings would healed everyone under Him.
4) With the Son of Righteousness there will be a going forth from the stall -- "You shall go forth from the stall."
The coming of Jesus means freedom not bondage. It’s a freedom from all kinds of guilt and condemnation. Prison walls will be broken! Broken hearts healed! The blind will see and deaf hears. Luke 4:19
5) In this verse 2 is that when the sun of righteousness rises with healing in his wings and we are set free from the stall of bondage, we will not merely walk, or run; we will leap like calves.
The joy that the Lord gives is that leaping joy. It is that unspeakable joy and will be so emotional. The joy that Jesus gives is real freedom. In other words freedom is the necessary condition of leaping joy. Jesus said once (Luke 6:22-23), "Blessed are you when men hate you. . . Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven." - But I want tell you that there is a calf in every believer. And you are given the strength to leap. Your leap is a leap of faith, a leap of hope and a leap of victory. If you are walking in defeat and the joy of God makes you leap to victory.
6) The Sun of Righteousness has already defeated the enemy at the cross.
We are to trample them into ashes. How do you kill cockroaches? You stepped on it until it is flatten. That is also the meaning of Christmas. Jesus comes
- to give light and truth where there was darkness and confusion,
- to set things right where they were wrong,
- to give healing where there was sickness and brokenness.
- to give freedom where there was bondage,
- to give calf-life joy where there was worry and fear.
- to trample down the wicked one into ashes where there was defeat and failure.
May this day and days ahead, the Sun of righteousness rise with healing in his wings so that all of us might go forth leaping like calves from the stall. We leap out in healing and power and recovery. We leap out in faith and victory and joy. We come against every works of the enemy and defeat them at the Cross of Jesus this day. This is the day to put our feet on the head of the enemies and trample them into ashes. Darkness has to flee and the Sun of Righteousness has to rise in us. Arise and shine for our light has come. In Jesus name, Amen!
