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