roots

I was reading Acts this morning and I came across a passage that speaks incredible truth about the mercy and providence of God. In Acts 13, the people in Antioch ask Paul to speak to them a word of encouragement before they left again on their travels. Paul starts by reminding them of their Jewish history, from Abraham to Saul to David, and then to Christ. But in verse 37, he tells them something that often goes overlooked by the american church today.

"For so the Lord has commanded us, saying

"I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth."

And when the Gentiles heard this they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed."

What struck me about this passage is we, the American church, are the Gentiles Paul is talking about. The message of salvation did not start in America. It came from a few, poor, radical Jewish men in Israel. In America, I think we often forget that. We forget where we came from. We forget that we were Gentiles. I think we bring a sense of entitlement to God. We have this idea that because we are American, we have the whole Christian thing down the right way. We think other nations should be doing church like we are. We forget that as Ephesians says "we were separated from Christ, alienated form the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world."

The amazing thing about this passage is that it was not first written by Paul. Paul quotes it from Isaiah, who prophesied that the Jews would be lights to the Gentiles, 700 years earlier. To the Jews, this idea would have seemed crazy. To think that their God wanted to bring salvation to the ends of the earth and use them as an instrument to accomplish it. And here we are, 2700 years after that prophecy was made, the so called "The Christian Nation". I think if we understood our roots, we would fall flat on our face in the thankfulness before the living God. He didn't have to choose us, but he did. He didn't have to send anyone to tell us about Jesus, but he did.

Know today that you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation. Not the nation of America, the nation of the redeemed of Christ.



JN