Bible Passage: Acts 13:46-49
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: January 5, 2025

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

The celebration of Epiphany is really a localized event.  What I mean is that there is a location that is associated with Epiphany.  That place is Bethlehem.  Herod’s priest directed the Wise Men to Bethlehem.  The star in the sky stopped over Bethlehem.  They found Jesus in Bethlehem.  They presented gold, frankincense and myrrh in Bethlehem.

And yet, properly understood, Epiphany is also a movement.  It is the spread of the Good News of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.  It happens wherever and whenever the light of Jesus shines into the darkness of this world and calls, gathers, and enlightens the people who were sitting in darkness.

Our text today is the story of “Epiphany on the move.”  It comes to us from the book of Acts.  The entire book of Acts is really the story of “Epiphany on the move.”  In our text, the good news of Jesus, the Light of the World, comes to a city called Antioch.  It is the story of when Epiphany Comes to Antioch.

Just a few chapters before our text, in Acts 9, the story of the conversion of Paul is recorded.  Recall how the Lord took Saul the persecutor of Christians and made him “Paul, the apostle and missionary.”  In that chapter the Lord says this about Paul, This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles. (Acts 9:15)  Paul was called to be the Lord’s “Epiphany preacher”!

Our text records Paul doing just that.  He and Barnabas are on what is called “Paul’s First Missionary Journey.”  He is traveling throughout Asia Minor and has come to the city of Pisidian Antioch.  Here Paul did what he typically did.  When he first arrived in a city, his first stop was the Jewish synagogue.  This is what he did in Antioch.  He went to the synagogue and preached forgiveness of sins to the people through faith in the glory of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth, crucified and risen!

This caused quite a stir.  They invited Paul and Barnabas to come back the next week to tell them more.  We are told almost the entire city shows up the next week to hear the Word about Jesus!  Great, right?  However, we are also told there were some Jews who were very jealous of what was happening, and they began to speak abusively against Paul.

This is where our text begins.  Paul and Barnabas do not shrink from the moment.  Boldly they declare, We had to speak the word of God to you first.  Since you reject it and do not consider yourself worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. (v. 46)  Those Jews who were stirring up trouble had pushed the Gospel away faster than a toddler shoves away a plate of green beans.  So now, says Paul, it is Epiphany for the Gentiles in Antioch!  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. (v. 47)

Paul quotes here from Isaiah 49.  This is one of the “Servant of the Lord” sections of Isaiah.  There are four such sections in Isaiah.  They are prophecies about Jesus.  Paul quotes a verse in which the Lord God says to the Servant, to Jesus, I have made YOU a light for the Gentiles.  Jesus owns to this in John 8:12:  I am the light of the world.

Why is Jesus “light?  “Light” is often associated with life.  It is light that makes life possible.  John helps us in the Prologue of his gospel.  There he writes:  In him [Jesus] was life, and that life was the light of men. (John 1:4)  Life in Jesus is the LIGHT.  “Life in Jesus”” is to know that God sent his Son for you.  Life in Jesus is to know your sin and guilt have been forever washed away in the cleansing blood of Jesus.  Life in Jesus is to live according to the Spirit, keeping in step with the Spirit, not according to the desires and impulses of the flesh.  Life in Jesus is to know death and the grave have been defeated and eternal life is yours.  Life in Jesus says with Paul, To live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)  ”Life-in-Jesus” was now going to be preached to the citizens of Antioch.  The darkness of their paganism – not knowing how to live, not knowing how to die – was about to be obliterated by the light of Christ!  Epiphany had come to Antioch!

Our world struggles with racism.  Good heavens, even NFL teams have it painted in their end zones now: “End Racism.”  Our world talks much about ending it.  But it does not have the tools to actually do it!  It is in the dark on this one.  Nothing will put an end to racism like an appreciation of Epiphany!  Epiphany means Jesus shed his blood for EVERYONE.  Regardless of the amount of melanin in their skin, whether it be less, like us fair-skinned Scandinavian types, or more, like our equatorial friends!  Epiphany means that a Jewish guy like Paul can go into a Greek city like Antioch and tell anyone who will listen, “Jesus Christ is your Savior, too!”  Epiphany means that you and I can go about our lives in a multicultural, multi-ethnic city like Madison and tell anyone we meet, “Jesus Christ is your Savior, too.”  God wants the people around us to have the light that is “life-in-Jesus.”

Epiphany explains what the one man meant when he said, “Heaven doesn’t look a thing like your church.”  That’s because churches tend to be pretty homogeneous.  It’s not that we are prejudiced here.  It’s just that “like people” tend to find “like people.”  It is a function of life in this world.  But when you get your choir folder in heaven, you may find that the person on your right and on your left don’t look a thing like you!  And it will be wonderful!  For you are all there to sing the same song of praise to the same Lamb of God, our Epiphany Lord, Jesus Christ!

Amen.