February 10, 2023
If you’ve ever felt yourself on the outside looking in, it’s not a good feeling. Being an outsider may enable you to see things an insider cannot see, but it comes at a price. I always felt like an outsider when I was growing up. I wasn’t athletic; strike one. I wasn’t outgoing; strike two. I liked music, but wasn’t particularly good at it, so I ended up playing of all the instrumental possibilities, the bassoon; strike three. I was out, slinking from the plate in defeat, sitting on the end of the bench all by myself.
So when I read Paul’s sermon in Acts 13, I get excited. Five times (vv. 26, 32, 33, 38, 41) Paul says, “to you.” The Word of God is “to you.” The Good News is “to you.” It’s not just others, but “you too.” Reading these words reminded me of another “to you” in the Bible, surprisingly enough, from the pen of Luke, who just happened to also be the author of Acts.
In Luke 2:11, on the night Jesus was born, the angels announced to the shepherds, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Whatever else the Gospel says, it always says this: “To you” God gave his Son. You are no longer on the outside looking in. You who were estranged and alienated, he has brought near. The outsider becomes an insider when sins are confessed and forsaken, and Jesus is received as Savior and Lord.
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