Acts 13:47 “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.’”

Just where are the ends of the earth? This is no Bible claim for a flat earth. Actually, there are passages in Isaiah and Job that hint at a spherical understanding of our planet, much like the Greeks understood from before the time of Christ.

Paul and Barnabas may not have known there were whole new continents beyond the Atlantic Ocean. But if they did, they would have concluded that those, too, were part of the “ends of the earth.” Anywhere there were lands and people, the Lord wanted them to take the gospel light, until they ran out of both.

Although this is an Old Testament passage, it was a different way of thinking than Paul and Barnabas grew up with. They were accustomed to the idea that only Jewish people would believe in the God who reveals himself in the Bible. You might interest a stray non-Jew here and there, but for the most part talking about religion to them was a waste of breath.

Now, right here in the very Gentile city of Antioch in Pisidia, in central modern Turkey, Jews were rejecting God’s word about a Messiah and salvation by grace through faith, and Gentiles, non-Jews, were embracing it. The “ends of the earth” didn’t end at the city of Antioch. But on this day they started there.

Today we can see that the “ends of the earth” involves far more geography and population than Paul or Barnabas could have dreamed of. They were aware of three continents. We know seven. Their world population was less than 200 million. We have surpassed 8 billion. The distance and the numbers look daunting. We may fear there is too much to cover. Our time, our reach, our resources are limited.

It’s true, you or I or our little church can’t reach everyone ourselves. But the gospel light is seeing exciting growth in places like China, Pakistan, Nepal, Vietnam, Thailand, sub-Saharan Africa, all over Latin America. You and I are part of it through our offerings and our prayers.

And though the “ends of the earth” don’t end in your hometown, that is where they begin. Let’s not make the mistake of thinking the gospel is only for one particular kind of people: only people who already look and think a lot like us are going to believe it. My current hometown prides itself on its diversity. “Building an inclusive community” has become the city’s motto. The university here attracts people from all around the world. They may not be looking for Jesus now, but then, when have people who don’t know him ever been looking for him? Certainly not when Paul and Barnabas preached.

God has made you and me a light or the nations, starting where we live today. Let’s not be diverted from that mission by any artificial limits we perceive.

Acts 13:45-47 “When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying. 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. For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles…’”

Light isn’t always welcome. Sometimes the reasons are innocent enough. You are tired and want to sleep. You work odd shifts and have to sleep during the day, so you install black out curtains on your windows.

Sometimes the reasons are more sinister. People indulge their vices in the dark. “Nothing good happens after midnight,” the saying goes. Thieves operate at night. Maybe they even cut the power or remove light bulbs to cover their work. They want to keep it dark.

Paul ran into people like that on his missionary journeys. Spiritually, they preferred the darkness. They weren’t criminals for the most part. They weren’t living what most would consider grossly immoral lives. Many, like the Jewish members of the synagogue he was debating here, seemed quite virtuous. They worked hard at keeping God’s laws. They attended worship and Bible study every week.

But in shining the light of Jesus on them, with his faith based on grace and forgiveness, Paul was exposing more subtle sins tucked back in the dark recesses of their hearts. These people had become graceless. They were legalists. Their own pride told them that they had made it, morally. But they did not want to reckon with sins of the mind and the heart: their contempt for other people, their selfishness, their lusts, their love affair with themselves. It’s not just that they didn’t want other people to see their faults. They didn’t want to see them themselves.

So they pushed back against the light. They tried to cut the power, and remove the bulbs Paul and Barnabas were lighting. The apostles gave them what they wanted. “Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.”

There are two warnings for us here. One has to do with how we react when the light shines on our own lives. The religion of Jesus emphasizes the grace and forgiveness of God. But that means God’s word will expose the things in our lives that need his grace and forgiveness. It isn’t pretty to look at, but it is the way it has to work. Sin is like a cancer that has metastasized. Maybe repentance and forgiveness has removed the life threatening tumor in one place. But hidden deep within the tissues on the other side of the body another tumor grows, perhaps tiny at first, of a different shape, producing no symptoms, imperceptible at the time. When it finally comes to light, you can’t ignore it. You certainly don’t want to protect it or feed it. It has to go under the knife of repentance and forgiveness. All sin, like cancer, is life threatening. In the balance are heaven or hell.

The other warning has to do with our own words of witness. You are a Christian. God has made you a light to our world. That is true no matter the reception you receive. People like the darkness. They have grown comfortable with it. We have felt comfortable with it. So don’t be surprised when friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, or casual acquaintances aren’t interested in what Jesus is giving away. Don’t let it dim your light.

Sometimes we read about the explosive growth of the early church in Acts and wonder why we don’t see successes like that. Remember that everywhere Paul went far more, far more, people rejected his gospel, often violently. Don’t be surprised today if the gospel’s reception is a little chilly more often than not. Not everyone wants to come into the light.

1 Peter 2:2-3 “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

When Peter compares us to newborn babies here, he is not criticizing our lack of spiritual maturity. The term is used that way other places in Scripture, but here he puts a positive spin on the idea. Nor is he opposing growth and maturity, as though we should remain spiritual infants forever. He specifically tells us that he wants us to grow up in our salvation. More about that in just a moment.

His one point of comparison between us and newborns is this: There is only one food appropriate for newborn babies (at least, before the development of infant formula). That is their mother’s milk. It is the only thing the baby wants. It is the only thing the baby’s body can handle. Variety may be the spice of life, but variety is no good when it comes to feeding infants. They need nothing but their mother’s milk.

In the same way we who are God’s newborns by faith need only one thing on which to feed– the pure, spiritual milk of the Word. It is the only thing our faith wants. It is the only thing our faith can handle. Any variety mixed in from human philosophy, false theology, or human speculation threatens to make us sick. It could even be fatal.

In order for that spiritual milk to be truly nourishing for our souls, it must contain God’s word of Gospel, his good news in Jesus Christ. Do you ever shop at Christian bookstores? There you will find some shelves with Bibles, and Bible commentaries, and books on church history and various world religions. But what fills row after row and shelf after shelf are books on Christian living, books dedicated to telling you how to live your life. I’m not going to say that those books don’t contain any useful information. Maybe you could find helpful hints for dealing with some issue that comes up in your life.

But without the gospel of God’s love for you in Jesus, such books cannot grow you up in your salvation. Without God’s promises of what he is doing for you, there is no food for your soul, no nourishment for your faith, no matter how helpful the words may be otherwise. You don’t grow closer to God when he is telling you what to do. Your trust in him doesn’t deepen and become more secure when you are concentrating on how your life matches up with his commands. Your heart’s intent to do things his way, your willpower to avoid sin and pursue love, doesn’t come from doing what God demands.

God is drawing you closer, and making you stronger, and driving faith deeper, when the words on which our faith is feeding are about the things that he does for us. That good news is not a limited subject to fit into a few paragraphs or a chapter in a book. I can’t do it full justice in a single sermon or a lifetime of sermons. It spans all the love that God has had for you from electing you to be his own even before he created the word, to directing the course of human history to prepare the way for Jesus, to the whole loving life of Jesus, to the events of Jesus’ trial-cross-and empty tomb that we know so well, to Jesus’ running the world for us from heaven, to his promise to return to take us there. It is expressed in his promise to forgive our sins, declare us not guilty of them, reconcile us to himself, come to us in word and sacrament, give us his Holy Spirit, and ultimately raise us from the dead.

The Gospel of God’s love for you is a gem with many, many facets. There are far too few books whose expressed purpose is to help us mine the Bible’s riches in exploring each one. But if we want to grow up in our faith and salvation, let’s crave and consume this pure spiritual milk. It is just the milk our spirit needs.

1 Peter 2:1-2 “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk.”

Newborns are not so innocent as they look. We were all born in original sin. Sin is a condition, an inescapable orientation. It thoroughly corrupts our hearts, minds, and wills from the first moment of our existence. Those babies may not be actively pursuing a life of crime. They lack the physical maturity to do so. In terms of how they treat the people around them, they are relatively innocent.

When God gave us our spiritual birth by bringing us to faith, whether by baptism or the preaching of his word, we did not suddenly cease all sinful activity. But God did forgive all our sins. He applied Jesus’ payment for our sins on the cross to each of us personally. Now our Lord pronounces us sinless, regards us as sinless, and deals with us as though we were sinless. We don’t just look innocent, like those newborn babies. As God’s spiritual newborns, in his eyes we actually are innocent.

The same faith through which we know and receive God’s grace and forgiveness also sets us free from our slavery to sin. That doesn’t mean we have stopped sinning altogether. But in faith we want to. And God’s own power working in us gives us the ability to resist sin and pursue love. We can strive to live as innocent as God in his grace says we look. We live as God’s newborns, repenting and ridding ourselves of evil deeds like those Peter lists here.

“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice…” This vice encompasses everything that follows. Malice is the opposite of love. Perhaps you can be angry with someone you love. But malice and love cannot coexist toward the same person. When we are full of malice, we want only to hurt them.

We may not become close friends with everyone we meet. Different values, beliefs, and priorities may be valid reasons for keeping our distance from some. When we know someone poses a danger to others, we might even have to take steps that lead to their suffering: turning in a criminal, or using physical force to prevent them from hurting someone else. None of this is malice. But when we start to find satisfaction in their pain or misfortune, whether or not we were the cause, we have crossed the line. We have given malice a foothold in our lives.

Does that seem relatively rare among us? Or could you think of the name of a person right now– perhaps a political figure or entertainer, some loudmouth at work, an obnoxious neighbor, someone who has hurt you–that you would like to “stick it to”? Their misfortune would bring you some hint of happiness. Peter calls on us to repent and rid ourselves of malice, so that we can live as spiritual newborns this new year.

Next, Peter urges us to unload our “deceit.” Why would God’s children want to lie to each other? Isn’t there a hefty dose of disrespect we display to those we deceive? When a lie is exposed, are we ever better off than if we had simply owned up to the sin in the first place? Deceit is another evil deed to unload this New Year.

“Hypocrisy” may seem strange to find on Peter’s list. Can a person have the new birth of faith and be a hypocrite all at the same time? Isn’t a hypocrite a “false Christian”? Aren’t these two things mutually exclusive? How could Peter address this to believers?

Understand that there is more than one kind of hypocrisy. The word “hypocrite” was originally the Greek word for an “actor” on the stage. Actors pretend to be people they are not. Since Bible times the term has been applied to those who pretend that they are Christians.

Sometimes true believers also do some pretending. Though they have faith in their hearts, they fall into treating certain people one way to their face, another behind their backs. They may butter a person up to get some advantage out of them. They may hide their disrespect and disdain. Whatever the reason, this is a kind of hypocrisy. Someone is putting on an act.

Peter urges us to be straight with each other. That is not permission to be rude or impolite. He is not excusing us from genuine Christian love. But he does want us to deal with each other in an honest way. If we have problems with others, we ought to deal with them openly and lovingly. If we are putting on a front to hide our dislike, it is the attitude, not the behavior, that has to change.

“Envy” is another strange sin for God’s children. Why should it bother us when someone else does well? Why can’t we simply find joy when they are successful? God has chosen not to distribute his material blessings in different amounts to each individual. But the most important blessings are the same for us all. We share the same forgiveness, faith, Savior, heaven, and eternal life. God promises that he has custom tailored our individual earthly lives to fit our individual earthly needs. Envy makes no sense for those who live under God’s blessing.

Finally, Peter urges us to rid ourselves of “slander of every kind.” The Greek term for slander is wide enough to embrace any kind of negative speech about someone, even criticisms that are true. You know how easy it is to start talking about a person who is not present. Someone thinks of a funny story about that person. Someone else points out a negative trait of the individual. Soon, without intending to do so, we are enjoying ourselves at the expense of their reputation. No matter how the conversation came to this point, this isn’t love. It may be true, but like the other practices on Peter’s list, it is not compatible with Christian living.

With the New Year, many will be making resolutions for self-improvement. Often we aim them at health and physical well-being. Why not make resolutions with a spiritual emphasis, like addressing the vices Peter has identified for us? Let’s be the innocent children God has made us.