Rejoice in the Word of salvation many reject.

 

Sermon for Epiphany, January 5, 2025

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  Amen.

Acts 13:46-49  ⁴⁶Then Paul and Barnabas responded fearlessly, “It was necessary that God's word be spoken to you first.  But since you reject it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, look: We are now turning to the Gentiles!  ⁴⁷For this is what the Lord has instructed us: I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth.”  ⁴⁸When the Gentiles heard this, they were rejoicing and praising the word of the Lord.  All who had been appointed for eternal life believed.  ⁴⁹And the word of the Lord was being carried through the whole region. (EHV)

Rejoice in the Word of salvation many reject.

Dear blessed of the Father,

            Imagine a family being granted a gift of riches so vast that it would be greater than the wealth of people like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, or Warren Buffet, or perhaps even all three combined, and yet the recipients of the gift refuse to accept that gracious offering because they imagine they can make more money on their own.  Or imagine a prisoner held in the depths of the world’s most notorious prison, only days from his scheduled execution, when that hopeless prisoner is granted a full pardon but he refuses it because he doesn’t like the messenger who brings that decree of freedom to him.

We really don’t have to imagine anything so incredible, because that is shown to us precisely in what Luke reports here in our sermon text, and the same thing continues to happen in our world still today.  People turn down God’s grace: His release from sin’s condemnation, His immense generosity of complete forgiveness of all sin, and His free gift of an eternal home in the mansions of heaven, all rejected for the poorest of reasons, or no reason at all.

Paul and Barnabas were sent to proclaim the Good News of the forgiveness and salvation Jesus has won for all people.  The first week that Paul preached in this town, many Jews believed and were glad to hear more of what Paul had to tell them.  Their gladness poured out to others over the course of that week, and their enthusiasm brought many, many more people to the synagogue to hear Paul speak the next week.  That is where we find them in our sermon text, leading people to Rejoice in the Word of salvation many reject.

Though some of the Jews had gladly received the Gospel, others had decided on a different agenda.  Offended that Paul was teaching free grace in Christ Jesus without the requirement of obeying all the Mosaic and Pharisaical law, they began a near riot and drove Paul and Barnabas out of the synagogue.  In other words, they became zealous for their religion of works and refused to hear how Christ had fulfilled all the law’s demands on their behalf.  These zealous individuals flatly refused to believe that Jesus had accomplished salvation for them, and particularly, they rejected the idea that Gentiles could be saved by God’s Christ without works of law.

As my introduction hinted, they threw away the gift of eternal life in heaven by denying the riches of God’s grace.  They rejected the forgiveness God granted to the world on the basis of Jesus’ life and death in our place.  Paul bluntly stated the outcome of their rebellion, “It was necessary that God's word be spoken to you first.  But since you reject it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, look: We are now turning to the Gentiles!”  By rejecting the Good News of what Jesus has done for the world, those people judged themselves unworthy of God’s mercy.  By their actions, they shouted to the face of God that Jesus isn’t good enough for them.  The end of such foolishness is everlasting torment in the depths of hell.  And like so many places in the centuries since, when God’s precious Gospel is rejected, the Holy Spirit moves on with His lovingkindness to rescue other sinners.

To the believing Christian, the actions of that Jewish crowd seem incomprehensible.  Why would anyone throw away such a great, everlasting gift, such a release from the eternal prison prepared to hold the devil and his wicked angels?  What on earth could possibly be so enticing that one would forgo the greatest gifts ever given?

My friends, before we exalt ourselves over those rebellious Jews, we better examine our own hearts.  How often do we forget the great benefits God has granted us through faith in Jesus?  How often do we find His Word not worth our time to hear?  How often do we question God’s plan and care for us?  How often do we judge other people not worthy of our forgiveness, as if we deserved the forgiveness granted to us by the Father?  If we are truly honest with ourselves, the realization of our own selfishness and guilt should lead us to react just like those Gentiles who so gladly heard and believed what Paul preached.

The truth is, Jesus wasn’t sent to save just the Jews, or Americans, or any other nationality or race, so we can rejoice because He gave His life for all people.  Isaiah tells us what God long ago promised His Son, the appointed Savior, “It is too small a thing that you should just be my servant to raise up only the tribes of Jacob and to restore the ones I have preserved in Israel, so I will appoint you to be a light for the nations, so that my salvation will be known to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6)  When Simeon picked up the Baby Jesus in the temple, he spoke with exultation, “My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” (Luke 2:30-32)  Therefore, moved by the Holy Spirit, Paul confirms this by saying, “We are now turning to the Gentiles!  For this is what the Lord has instructed us: I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth.”  By God’s grace, salvation and forgiveness of all our sins has been gifted to you and me so that we are led by the Gospel to Rejoice in the Word of salvation many reject.

God sent His Son to be the Redeemer and Savior of all people of earth.  Jesus paid for the sins of the whole world.  He paid for you and me.  Jesus didn’t ask “Who will be worthy of God’s grace?” because no one who has ever been born from the seed of Adam has been without sin.  We all have been guilty and worthy of everlasting separation from God in the unending torment of hell.

The truth is we didn’t deserve God’s grace.  We didn’t deserve Jesus living and dying for us.  Furthermore, not one person ever made a decision on his own to believe in Jesus.  Not one person ever found forgiveness and salvation apart from the proclamation of the Gospel.  It simply doesn’t and can’t happen, because the Gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes—to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.  For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed by faith, for faith, just as it is written, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” (Romans 1:16-17)

Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel, the most one could ever do is fall into the trap of relying on self-righteousness which isn’t righteousness at all, because all people are corrupted body and soul by sin.  This sin comes to us through our natural inheritance from our parents.  Along with that inborn sin comes condemnation before God and a complete lack of ability to please Him.

However, now is the time to Rejoice in the Word of salvation many reject.  You see, God didn’t ask whether some could work their way to heaven; He knew exactly what had to be done to reconcile us with Him.  So that our relationship with God could be restored, God made the plan, He did the work, He prophesied what we needed to see in a Savior, and He sent His Holy Spirit through the Word and His messengers to tell us how Jesus lived, died, and rose again for our salvation, and through that Good News His Holy Spirit works in us the ability to accept God’s Gospel message and believe it.

Remember how you came to believe in Jesus.  For most of us, we were blessed already as infants to be baptized, through which we were given faith by the power of the Gospel as St. Peter was moved by the Holy Spirit to declare, “Baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the body but the guarantee of a good conscience before God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 3:21)  Naturally, that newly-given faith had to be nurtured by the hearing of the Word of God’s grace so that our faith continued to grow, just as others, such as the Greeks and Romans who heard Paul preach on his missionary journeys, came to believe by hearing the Good News, because “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)

“When the Gentiles heard this, they were rejoicing and praising the word of the Lord.  All who had been appointed for eternal life believed.  And the word of the Lord was being carried through the whole region.”  One might ask, how could they not rejoice at such Good News?  Yet, we know many still do not believe.  It is truly incomprehensible to the believing mind that anyone would reject Jesus, but the truth is, we only believe in Jesus because God in His mercy elected us to believe and worked everything so that we hear His Good News, and faith is granted to us through that message of peace.

The doctrine of election is hard for the sinner to accept, because we always want to make ourselves acceptable to God.  That arrogant boast of our own efforts has to be pummeled down by the power of the law.  But if the law is all we knew, we would live every day like we are fighting the heavyweight champion of the world, being continually knocked down by its punishing blows until any hope of life was pounded out of us.

However, God does not save us by Law.  He saves us by the gift and promise of His Savior Son.  We are redeemed by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  What is now given to us is the forgiveness of all sins, freedom from punishment and condemnation, and the opportunity to rejoice for the gifts of God’s love and to tell others about what Jesus has done for us all, so that they too can enjoy these precious gifts of forgiveness, salvation, peace with God, and eternal life in heaven.  When we daily keep what Jesus has done for us clearly in focus, we will gladly, willingly, continually through good times and bad, with friend and stranger alike, Rejoice in the Word of salvation many reject.  Amen.

Now to him, who is able, according to the power that is at work within us, to do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever!  Amen.