The following is an excerpt from a recent sermon I preached on Acts 1:6-11. This is something I hope to do each week on my blog.
The prose has been slightly edited for ease of reading, but I’ve tried to retain the sermonic, spoken feel as much as possible.
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“It is too light a thing,” Isaiah says, “that you should be my servant to take up the tribes of Jacob and to bring the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Isa. 49:6).
That was a promise about the Messiah and about the Messianic community. God says what you have in mind is too light a thing. He knew they were thinking, “God if you would just save us, if you would save Israel, if you would save people like me, if you save some friends of mine, some classmates, some people in my family, people who look like me, people vote like me–that’s what I want.” God says “That is all fine, but that is too small.” It is too small a thing that God would raise up the Christ just to save Israel. Oh no, no, no, he will be a light to the nations!
Listen, whatever plans and hopes and dreams you have for the gospel–and I hope you have some. I hope all of your hopes and plans and dreams are not concentrated on just your grades or your girlfriend or fantasy football. As important as those three things are (though it’s hard to be good at fantasy football and have a girlfriend). So I hope you have some plans and dreams for the gospel where you want something to happen in the world. It is possible those plans for the gospel are too self-centered or too impatient or too naïve, but it is not possible for them to be too big.
To the ends of the earth!
Do you want your family to believe in Christ? He can do that. Do you want your dorm? He can do that. Do you want this campus? He can do that. But anything less than the ends of the earth is too small a thing.
The disciples wanted the kingdom restored to Israel, but Jesus says “No, not just Israel. That is where it will start, and from there it will go everywhere.”
You can listen to the entire sermon and watch the whole thing here.
