Salvation's Light Shines

Acts 13:46-49

Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.47For this is what the Lord has commanded us:

“‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
         that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

48When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.

49The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.

Salvation’s Light Shines

Back when I lived south of the border – in a climate that would allow for this kind of thing – every year, after our city’s Christmas parade, my church would host a live nativity. We would reenact the events of the Christmas story for our community and invite them to hear what Jesus means for them.

One year, I had an epiphany: “What if we rented a 40-foot-tall crane and hoisted a star with lights on it above our church so that people could find their way to our live nativity after the parade was over?” It worked like gang busters! We heard all kinds of people say, “I saw your star from downtown and had to come and see what it was all about.”

I have to imagine that the star the wise men saw in Matthew 2 was a little more impressive than the one we made out of PVC pipe and LED lights, but it served the same purpose – to shine salvation’s light for all to see.

Today I want to think about the role that light plays in salvation’s story, and in your story too.

Like in our live nativity, it was the light of a star that led the wise men to Jesus. They said,

“We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”[1]

Matthew tells us that when they got to Bethlehem and saw the star over the place where the child was,

“they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”[2]

Forget the mysterious background of the wise men for a second, forget a star that moves with such specificity that it can point out the exact house Jesus was in, forget about the frankincense (whatever that is…) – the most curious and wonderful piece of this whole story is that these foreigners, strangers from a distant land, Gentiles, bowed down and worshiped the King of the Jews. They called him the King of Jews. He was known in Scripture as the King of the Jews. But these non-Jews knew that he was their king too. They were the first Gentiles to worship Jesus as their Saviour.

Of course, they wouldn’t be the last. In Acts 13, we read about Paul proclaiming the gospel to Gentiles too. And this was a big deal for these Gentile believers. They had been outsiders, sometimes quite literally! They couldn’t even enter certain parts of the Temple in Jerusalem; it was off-limits to them. They could accept and believe in the God of the Bible. They could even be accepted by their Jewish counterparts, but they could never quite fit in completely. There would always be the chance that they would feel – or be made to feel – like second-class citizens in the kingdom of God.

Until Paul proclaimed the good news to them.

In our Second Lesson for today, Paul quotes a passage from the prophecy of Isaiah that’s about the long-promised Messiah. He says,

“I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.”[3]

God didn’t just want to save the Jews. The Gentiles were never an after-thought in God’s grand plan of salvation. God didn’t put conditions on salvation for the Gentiles, as if they would have to adopt all the traditions and ceremonies of the Jews – like getting circumcised and giving up bacon for breakfast. No, the good news was that God wanted the Gentiles too. He always had. That’s why he sent his Son, as Isaiah says here, to be a light for the Gentiles.

You see, even though Pontius Pilate sarcastically put a sign on Jesus’ cross that read the same as what the wise men were looking for – “the King of the Jews” – Jesus didn’t just die for the Jews. Jesus didn’t just die for people whose families had been believers for generations. Jesus didn’t just die for people who spent their whole lives serving him. Jesus died for sinners – Jew and Gentile alike. Jesus died for you.

I look around this room and I don’t see too many Jews. I look around this room and I don’t see anyone who naturally had the strength to choose Jesus. But I look around this room and I see a collection of souls from all kinds of backgrounds and heritages, who have different stories and lineages, who have all been chosen by God.

That’s the good news of Epiphany. God chose you. God appointed you for eternal life through faith in his Son, i.e. through faith in Jesus, the Light of the World. God sent his Son into this world for you. God sacrificed his Son on a cross for you. God even worked faith in your heart by his Holy Spirit. God did it all for you, and it had nothing to do with you!

No matter your culture, your heritage, your personal past, no matter your present unworthiness of God or his love, God attaches no strings to salvation. He doesn’t make heaven conditional on how many good things you can do. Salvation is entirely a matter of what God has done for you. God sent his Son as the sacrifice for your sin, so that you could believe and have eternal life in him. God did it all for you! That is the beauty of Epiphany – God did it all. There is nothing you need to be or do to be saved.

But there is still something for you to do.

Remember, I told you I want to think about light today – the role that it plays in salvation’s story, and the role that it plays in your story too. Well, the light of the star brought the wise men to Jesus. Jesus is the Light of the World that brings salvation to the ends of the earth. But Paul says,

“This is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles.’”[4]

You are light too.

Think about it this way. How did the Gentiles in Antioch respond when Paul told them that Jesus was their Saviour too? Our translation puts it this way,

“When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord.”[5]

That’s putting it mildly. In the Greek, Luke makes it clear this was not a one-time event. Their gladness wasn’t just something that put a smile on their face for the rest of the day. They were overjoyed! They rejoiced! And they continued to rejoice. They made it a habit to honor the word of the Lord. And what happened?

“The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.”[6]

Paul didn’t do that. Barnabas couldn’t reach the whole region. But the Gentiles could, and they did, as they took this good news of salvation for all people home to their family and friends.

Paul says that the Lord has commanded us to bring salvation to the ends of the earth, but here’s the truth of Epiphany: you don’t have to go Timbuktu to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. It starts whole lot closer to home than that.

Think back to Christmas Eve for a second. At the end of that service, we sang Silent Night by candlelight, but how did your candle get lit? You didn’t bring your own lighter. Every candle was lit from the flame of the Christ candle.

I went back and watched the video. It took me 5 seconds to light one candle from mine. There were 58 people in church that night. Simple math says that at that rate, it should take almost 5 full minutes to light all 58 candles. It took less than one minute. Do you know why? Because I didn’t light every candle myself. I lit 2. Glenn and Peter each lit 5. Everyone else? Just 1. But in less than 60 seconds every one of the 58 candles in this room was lit, because everyone shared the light.

That’s what we get to do.

Jesus is the Light of the World. He’s the one who brings salvation to the ends of the earth. God does all that work. But we get to be the ones who bring the Light of the World to the world, even if it’s just one person at a time, or one person in a lifetime.

You get to be the one who brings the light of salvation to your home, to share Jesus with your children or maybe even with your parents. You get to be the one who brings the light of salvation to your coworkers, teammates, neighbours, by talking to them about Jesus, by inviting them to hear more from worship or Bible class, by being an example – a reflection of the light of Christ, bringing his kindness and love to the world.

Jesus is the Light of the World. He’s the one who shines his salvation into your hearts whenever you hear his Word. Rejoice! That’s the good news of Epiphany – that God chooses you for salvation.

Jesus is the Light of the World. He’s the one who sends you out into the world with his light to bring salvation to others. Reflect that light! That’s the truth of Epiphany – that God uses you to shine the light of his salvation to the ends of the earth.

May God, who sent his Son to be a light for the Gentiles shine in and through your hearts by faith in Christ Jesus. To him be all praise and glory and honor forever and ever. Amen.

[1] Matthew 2:2

[2] Matthew 2:10-11

[3] Acts 13:47

[4] Ibid

[5] Acts 13:48

[6] Acts 13:49

St. Pete's on Repeat RSS

Prepare the Way for the Lord

Luke 3:1-6

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar – when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.
5 Every valley shall be filled in,
    every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
    the rough ways smooth.
6 And all people will see God’s salvation.’”

Prepare the Way for the Lord

There are so many preparations to be made for Christmas. Are you going to send out Christmas cards or a family newsletter? You should probably send them now if you want them to get there by Christmas. Are you hoping to get away for a day or two during the holiday? I hate to break it to you, but you probably should have booked your room a couple months ago. There are decorations to put up, presents to purchase and wrap, cookies to bake, paper stars to make. There are so many preparations to be made for Christmas.

Why, though? Why do we go to all the trouble for one day of the year?

It’s not for family. Under “normal” circumstances you could plan to see your family whenever you want. Under the “new normal” you might not be able to see your family at all. We don’t go to all this trouble for family. As a Christian you know that it’s all about what brings family together – it’s about the celebration of our Saviour’s birth.

If you thought you had things to prepare to celebrate this Christmas, imagine the preparations that God was making to celebrate the first Christmas – to prepare for his Son’s arrival on earth and the work he had sent him to do.

Luke goes into great detail about the historical context of that coming. He mentions prominent members of the Roman government and the hierarchy of the Hebrew high priesthood. We don’t need to go into the details, but Luke mentions them so that you can know that all these true events took place “when the set time had fully come.”[1] God had set the stage to fulfill his promise to send a Saviour. He orchestrated the events of history to prepare the way for his Son.

This was tremendously good news for the people who lived under Pontius Pilate and Herod and Philip and Lysanias. They had been waiting for thousands of years for the Saviour to come, and finally he was on his way. In fact, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,[2] Jesus was already 29 years old. The Saviour had come; he just hadn’t announced himself yet. God had kept his promise. Salvation was on the way.

That’s why we celebrate Christmas and make all the preparations that we do, because God was true to his word. The Lord did come. That is a fact worth celebrating with decorations and special music and midweek worship services. God sent his Son at Christmas to be our Saviour.

But here’s a truth that’s easy to forget this time of year. Jesus still comes to you today. He comes to you in Word and Sacrament, i.e. through the waters of Baptism and the bread and wine – his own body and blood – in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus still comes to you every time you sit down with your Bible and read your daily devotion.

During the season of Advent, we don’t say, “The Lord was coming.” We say, “The Lord is coming,” because he still comes to you today in Word and Sacrament, and because Jesus is coming again on the Last Day.

Jesus is certainly with us today, but someday soon he will return with the clouds of heaven, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God.[3] The Lord still is coming. That’s good news worth celebrating.

But it’s also news that means that you and I need to hear the same message that John shared with all those people out in the wilderness:

“Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”[4]

John, of course, isn’t being literal. God doesn’t need us to pave an actual highway to heaven to prepare for his arrival, but he does call us to prepare our hearts, and John told the people how to do that. He came preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.[5]

If you were to summarize John’s entire ministry of preparing the way for the Lord in a single word, it would be “repent.” The Greek word here refers to a complete change of heart and mind. In other words, repentance means that you think and feel differently about both sin and salvation. And this is important as we prepare for the coming of the Lord, because the two greatest enemies of preparation are arrogance and indifference.

I mean that makes sense in earthly things, right? You have midterms coming up. Half of your grade is dictated by how you do on this one test. If you’re arrogant and you think you know everything already, then you’re not going to study and you’re not going to be ready. Or if you’re indifferent – if you just don’t care – then why put in the effort at all? Either way, you’re not prepared for what’s about to happen.

Those are the same enemies that we have to fight as we prepare for Christ to come again. We can’t afford to be arrogant, and yet, arrogance in the church, among Christians, is far more common than you would ever hope or believe.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen it. New Christians have a much greater appreciation for Jesus because they know what they’ve been saved from. Maybe it was a life of addiction to alcohol or drugs or sex. Maybe it was a heart hardened against God – that denied or hated God. Maybe it was complete ignorance that there is a God. New Christians often get it. They know what they’ve been saved from.

Those of us who have been Christians for a bit longer are more susceptible to arrogance. We might think we know it all already. We might think that we’re already leading a good and godly life… until someone points out to you that the way you talk about other people is not only rude but it’s shameful and sinful. We might think we’re leading a good and godly life, until someone points out to you that even looking at a woman lustfully – like the women on your favourite TV-MA TV show – even looking at them with desire is sinful, let alone the Google searches that follow, or, God-forbid, the illicit meetups you don’t want anyone to find out about.

That’s no way to prepare for Jesus’ return as Lord.

Neither is indifference. There’s a lot of that to go around too. This will be my ninth Christmas as a pastor. Christmas is easily one of the top 2 days of the year for Christians. But every year on Christmas morning, as happy as that day is, I can’t help but feel a little disappointment. We might get 70-100 people here on Christmas Eve, but only a fraction come back the next day.

And I get it! You’ve already been to church. Who really needs to go to two church services within 18 hours of each other? But that’s the thing. It’s not about need. It’s about desire – desire to be with God, with other Christians, around God’s Word. And that’s true of Christmas morning, but also of daily devotion and prayer. We can grow so indifferent and can’t be bothered to care.

That’s no way to prepare for Jesus’ return.

The way to prepare is to repent – to have a complete change of mind and heart about sin and salvation. As one poet put it:

There is no mind so good that it doesn’t need to be changed.
There is no mind so bad that it cannot be changed.
There is no sin so small that it doesn’t need to be forgiven.
There is no sin so great that it cannot be forgiven.

My mind is not so good that no change is needed, and your sin is not so small that it doesn’t need to be forgiven. Repentance means seeing those seemingly innocent or accidental or unintentional sins as acts of rebellion against God deserving punishment and death and hell. That’s what sin is, “great” or “small.”

But repentance also means having a complete change of mind and heart about salvation. My hope for heaven is not based on how good I can be or how little I can sin. It’s based on the work that my king came to do.

Again, that’s why we celebrate Christmas and make all the preparations we do, because it’s at Christmas that the words of Isaiah come true:

“And all people will see God’s salvation.”[6]

That’s what Jesus came to give you by dying on a cross. That’s what he still gives you through his Word and Sacraments. He gives you the forgiveness of your sins.

Earlier I told you the Greek word for repentance– a complete change of heart and mind. The Greek word for forgiveness paints a good picture too – it’s a complete removal of your sins from you forever, just like God promises you in the Psalms:

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.[7]

Or, again, through the prophet Micah:

You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.[8]

That’s what Jesus came to give you – complete removal of your sins from you forever. And he won that for you by his death on the cross.

That’s why Jesus came at Christmas – to be your Saviour from sin. That’s why he’s coming again – to take you home to be with him forever in heaven.

But there’s work for us to do before then – and it’s not leading a crusade to right the ship in Canada, to protect my personal rights and freedoms, to get Santa out of the malls and Jesus on the grounds of the Legislature Building; it’s not a crusade to get anyone else to change anything in themselves. We have work to do in our own hearts.

That’s what Advent is all about, and that’s what repentance is all about – completely changing the way we think about our sin, hating the sins we used to love and loving the godly things we used to find boring, but, above all, rejoicing when we see Jesus, because when we see Jesus we see God’s salvation and our forgiveness – the complete removal of our sins from us forever.

This Advent, may God give you a heart of repentance too, and may he who began a good work in you carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] Galatians 4:4

[2] Luke 3:1

[3] 1 Thessalonians 4:16

[4] Luke 3:4

[5] Luke 3:3

[6] Luke 3:6

[7] Psalm 103:12

[8] Micah 7:19

St. Pete's on Repeat RSS