Fifth Sunday of Easter – April 24, 2016
The Significance of the Words: “Salvation to the Ends of the Earth”
Acts 13:44-52 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying. 46 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. 47 For 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.’”48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. 49 The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. 50 But the Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. 51 So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
Have you ever felt left out; like you don’t belong? Maybe it is as a kid, when all your friends are doing one thing but your parents won’t let you join in. Maybe currently it is at work, when everyone seems to be plugged in as to what is going on except you. Perhaps it’s even with your family, after you have left home but still know they get together with family and friends.
There have been, no doubt, times in our life when we have felt left out; like we don’t belong. But you know, God doesn’t want us to feel that way when it comes to salvation. Again and again on the pages of the Bible he clearly reveals himself to us. He does so in ways that make it clear as to how he feels about us and what he has done for us. That is the case before us this morning in the words of one of the verses that set the direction of our sermon - so we talk about the significance of the words: salvation to the ends of the earth.
The portion of God’s Word that sets before us today starts out by saying, “On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.” The previous Sabbath, the week before, Paul had been invited to preach a sermon in the church. His words were what we considered in our service last week. We saw that it was a sermon that centered on Jesus Christ and his resurrection. It was a sermon that clearly reminded us that Jesus is more than just a historical person from the past; he is the Son of God and our Savior. As such, our sins made it necessary for him to go to the cross; yet at the cross he won forgiveness for those sins. So Paul ended his sermon by saying:“Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38,39).
And that Word of God that Paul spoke had an impact - “On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.” It especially had an impact among the Gentiles. Nowremember that a Gentile, as spoken of in the Bible,is someone who is not a Jew. A Jew was a descendant of Abraham, and everyone else was a Gentile. Understanding that, it isn’t hard to imagine why Paul’s sermon would have been such good news to the Gentiles. They might have felt left out.
You see, it was the Jewish nation descended from Abraham that God set aside to be his people. It was the descendants of Abraham that he rescued from Egypt and gave the Promised Land. It was to them first that he gave the Ten Commandments. It was mostly to them that he spoke when he sent his prophets. And it was from them that he promised the Savior of the world.
In addition to this, even if Gentiles did convert to Judaism, there were things they weren’t allowed to do. There were certain rules and regulations they had to meet first. And then there was the Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments, which they recognized they could never keep perfectly as God demanded of them. So yes, they might feel like they didn’t belong.
But Paul tells them they do: “we now turn to the Gentiles.For 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.’” Paul applies these words to himself and Barnabas. He says that since the Jews were rejecting the message of salvation in Jesus, they would turn to the Gentiles just like God said. And what’s even more emphatic about this is that the words that Paul applies to himself were first spoken about Jesus. Paul quotes them from the book of Isaiah, and when Isaiah wrote them he was speaking about how the coming Savior would be for all people. Not just Jews, but Gentiles too. No one would be excluded from his redeeming work.
That’s good news for us. We are Gentiles, and if Jesus came for Gentiles it means he came for us. If salvation is for the entire world, it means it’s for you and me. It’s good news because in all reality,on our own we don’t belong with God; we don’t deserve salvation.
God is perfect and tells us we must be perfect too. But already at the moment of our conception, we are contaminated with the disease of sin inherited from our sinful parents. Once born, that disease acts itself out. Even now, though we know God’s laws, have a good idea of what is right and wrong, we do a rotten job of following them. We are epic failures.
When we want to be content, and know that is how we should be and why we can be it, we still grumble and complain. When we know that we should be considerate, kind and patient, and even have every reason to be, we still actcrabby and harsh. When we know what kind of language is pleasing to God, and we want to do it, still those words that pierce our heavenly Father’s heart flow from our tongue. Yes, as we examine our hearts we see failure after failure. We see failures to win over sin and (gasp) we see failures to even want to win over some sins. And if we carry all these failures out to their logical conclusion, we must confess that we are a failure who has earned nothing but hell for ourselves.
It doesn’t seem possible, then, that we could belong with God; that we could be saved. For God is just and man is unjust; God is holy and all mankind sinful. We can do nothing to alter the horrible status wehave before God. Justice would say we must be left out. How can it be otherwise? The only way it can be otherwise is because God places our salvation totally into the realm of Jesus. “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them…God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:19,21).
Our salvation has nothing to do with us. It is God alone who has acted. And how does this happen. Christ, the holy, the innocent, the sinless, and the perfect is “made…to be sin” for all mankind. Humankind has in Christ a substitute under the just wrath of God. God in effect declares Christ guilty of every sin that has ever been committed or ever would be committed.
When the Father sees his Son on the cross, he sees the sin, guilt, and shame of the entire world. That’s right! God sees God as guilty. God looks on his perfect, beloved Son and sees only disgrace, filth, sin and shame. And he punishes him accordingly. With Christ on the cross enduring the punishment and the wrath of God against the sin of the whole world, Christ trades places with all humanity. Christ is declared guilty and punished; the whole world is acquitted, declared forgiven.
And who did God reconcile? Listen again: “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ.” Who is acquitted? Who is forgiven? The world! So Paul can say, “salvation to the ends of the earth!”
And that means you! Are you a member of the human race? Then salvation is for you. Pinch yourself. Did you feel it? Then you still live in this worldand that salvation is for you. Despite your epic failures you are not left out! God reconciled the world to himself. And we need to keep repeating this glorious truth because the pride of man wants to pervert it, the hatred of the devil wants nothing more than to destroy it, and the wickedness of the world, obsessed only with things, wants to suffocate it with the things of this world.
But now, before we go any further, let’s make sure we have something straight. While we rightfully say that God reconciled the world to himself, he does not say that everyone will go to heaven. Not all go to heaven. While God is gracious and his grace extends to the whole world; while Christ’s work has paid for the sin of the whole world; only those who believe - only those who have what we call saving faith - end up in heaven. It is by faith alone that the forgiveness and salvation won by Christ for the world becomes our very own personal possession.
And it only stands to reason that if we are incapable of bringing about our salvation, we also are incapable of creating this saving faith. The cause of faith is the gospel in the Word. Through the Word God comes to us and declares, “You have been redeemed! I reconciled you to myself! You are forgiven! I claim you as my own dear child! I have done it all for you because of my love and through my Son!”
It is that message that speaks to our cold, dead hearts that were conceived in sin and brings them to life so that we can say, “The Word of God is true! He means me! Christ is my Savior! He lived and died and rose again for me too, even me!” And dear friends, the way in which God has called us to faith is the only way others are going to be brought to faith. You and I both know that there are, as we speak, hundreds of thousands of millions of people in our world who do not know and believe that God has forgiven them in Christ Jesus. We have work to do!
That fits in well with what our Savior says in the gospel we read earlier, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). What greater love can we show to our fellow man than to put them into contact with the Word that creates faith? What greater love can we show to our family, neighbors, and friends than to have a real, deep, rooted interest in where they will spend eternity?
We certainly see that happen in our lesson this morning -“On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.” How was it that so many people knew about Paul and Barnabas? Others had been talking! They shared with people what Paul had said the week before! Perhaps they said something like this: “Come, listen to this man who tells us that we are include in God’s plan of salvation! We belong!”
We can do that! Every one of us. In fact it is part of the assignment God has given to us. We can invite people – come, hear. We can say: “Everyone has to die. You do to. What then? Come find out from one who came back from the dead.” And then trust the power of the Word that has worked in you to work in them.
But what about when people oppose us; ridicule us; even threaten to make our life difficult? Well, look at the example Paul and Barnabas leave. “When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly.” The word translated “talked abusively” comes from the word “blaspheme.” It carries with it the idea of speaking against someone in such a way as to harm or injure their reputation. So what do Paul and Barnabas do when people seek to ruin their reputation and make life miserable?
Do they shy away from saying anything more because people might not like them? Did they stop because it might make life less enjoyable? No, they answer boldly. They put their reputation on the line because that is what it means to love others as Christ has loved us.
Loving others as Christ has loved us means sacrifice. That’s right – sacrifice. It means we might just have to give up some of the things we want to do. It means sacrificing my time in order to take time for others. It means giving of my “precious” weekend to join my congregation in canvassing a neighborhood. It means going out of my comfort zone to approach and talk to people and strike up a religious conversation with them.
Because, after all, salvation is for the ends of the earth. There is no one for whom Christ Jesus has not died. The door we knock on; the nephew or cousin we speak with; the coworker who sits next to us; and the neighbor down the street are all part of the world that God was reconciling to himself in Christ Jesus. But many do not know it or believe it. They need the gospel to break down their wall of unbelief and create saving faith. That’s where you and I come in.
The fact that salvation is for the ends of the earth is not just a message for us. It’s not simply a message that comforts us by assuring us that we belong. It is a message that tells us we have work to do. That is the significance of the words: salvation to the ends of the earth. God grant us a heart that follows the example of his love for us so that we faithfully bring the message of salvation to the corner of God’s kingdom in which we live. Amen.