The light shines in the darkness - Acts 13v44- 14v7

Help us, please help us to listen to it.

Please help us to understand it, and please help us to have receptive hearts to it.

Please would you work in us through your word this morning?

Amen.

So I'm reading Acts chapter 13, and I'm going to read from verse 44.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him.

And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you.

Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.

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.

And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region.

But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.

But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and went to Aconium.

And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Now at Aconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue, and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed.

But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers, so they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

But the people of the city were divided.

Some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.

When an attempt was made by both Jews and Gentiles, with their rulers to mistreat them and to stone them, they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derby, cities of Lyconia and to the surrounding country, and there they continued to preach the gospel.

It shows us the beginning of the church.

And in the first chapter, the apostles are given this mission by Jesus, this task.

Jesus tells them to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

And from what we've seen so far as we've been reading through Acts, it's not an easy task, is it?

So starting in Jerusalem, they were brought up in front of the council.

The apostles, at various stages along the way, they've been imprisoned.

One of them was stoned to death, they've been persecuted.

And now in this chapter 13, we see them go from that start where they were preaching to Jews in Jerusalem, people who were in God's promised land, who should have some knowledge of the Lord, some expectation of a Savior.

And now they're preaching to non-Jews, to Gentiles, to peoples who are living in a foreign land, who are probably pagan, who probably know nothing of the Lord.

Why do they do this?

Why this change?

We see this answered in verse 47.

That's a key verse for this whole passage.

Paul says, God has commanded us, I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

And this verse, as I said, it's really important for the whole passage, if we can understand this verse.

So what does it mean?

Well, to understand what this verse really means, we've got to see that, you know, it's in quotation marks.

It's been quoted from somewhere.

It's been quoted from Isaiah and from chapter 49.

This is perhaps written 700 years ago.

Sorry, 700 years before.

And here are the some verses from that.

So this is it's quoted from 49 verse 6 in Isaiah.

He says, It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob, and to bring back those of Israel I have kept.

I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

So this is a description of a servant that God plans to send.

And just before this, we read more of the description of the servant.

In Isaiah 49, verse 2, it says, He made my mouth like a sharpened sword.

Isaiah 49:2

In the shadow of his hand he hid me.

He made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.

He said to me, You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.

So the imagery that's associated with these verses with the servant, well, it's it's of warfare, it's of violence, isn't it?

He will come with with awesome parts, says he will display the splendour of the Lord.

But notice it is the mouth of the servant that is like a sword.

So this servant wages war with his words.

And leaving the book of Isaiah where we where we pick this quote from, reading on the Bible, we we find this quoted again.

We find it again in Luke chapter 2, which is almost a direct quote of this, where Simeon in the temple picks up the infant Jesus in his arms and says, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

So Simeon tells us there, his eyes have seen here in this child God's salvation.

So Jesus is the is the fulfillment of Isaiah 49.

Jesus is the servant, he's the light of salvation.

Yet you wonder those people who who heard Simeon say that in the temple, did they think after they saw Jesus crucified and laid in the tomb, did they think, what's happened to this plan?

Has this light gone out?

What happened to Jesus' light going to for salvation going for to the Gentiles?

And the answer in our on our passage we've just read is that no, this light has not gone out after Jesus ascended to heaven and sent his Holy Spirit while he's still pursuing this mission of salvation.

What we've read so far in Acts, it's like the light is going out from Jerusalem.

First of all to Judea then and Samaria, and now to Pisidian Antioch.

And that lighting up of those different places.

Well, it's done by Jesus, it's done by his word.

And Jesus' word, which is described in Revelation chapter 1, it is a two-edged sword.

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

Jesus' word is bringing the salvation to these people.

And this passage we just read, it shows a kind of worked example of this working out of how Jesus' word, his light of salvation, spreads in dark places.

I said already, Paul and Barnabas, they're in this foreign land.

Lots of people are non-Jews, they're Gentiles, most people are.

It's a place of darkness.

People living in darkness, what does that mean?

It means you can't see, doesn't it?

Obviously.

It means you can't see the truth.

Living in darkness, it means that these people have no hope.

It means they're cut off from the Saviour, from the light of salvation.

And when Paul and Barnabas, when they reach these people living in darkness, what do they do?

They preach the word of God.

Do you remember if you were here last week?

We read from the start of chapter 13, we read that sermon, that first recorded sermon outside of Israel, preached in the in the synagogue in City and Antioch, where we pick up the story today.

And the message, if you just scan down, the message they preached was all about Jesus.

It was all about salvation, his offer of forgiveness.

Look at verses 38 and 39, just before where we read.

Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

So the message of that sermon is of salvation, it's of forgiveness, a chance to be right with God, to be clean, to be free.

That was the message.

It was wonderful news for these people who were living in darkness.

And a way it's not surprising.

Look how they responded.

In verse 42, it says they begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath.

People are saying, you know, how can this be true?

Can you tell us more about this?

And I'm sure Paul and Barnabas did.

I'm sure they didn't stay silent for the whole week.

But when they come back the next week on the Sabbath, we find in verse 44, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

It's worth just picturing.

Imagine this synagogue just packed the rafters with people.

People, you know, in every aisle, people jostling for space, because they want to hear Paul and Barnabas preach the word of God.

And it shows us that the effect of God's word on people.

God's word goes out and it is powerful.

It's like a sword, it cuts to people, like the arrow.

It cuts them to their hearts.

And when God's word does it, it goes does this, it goes out, it cuts people to their hearts, and they respond in different ways.

And in the passage we've just read, we see two different responses, two very different responses.

And when we speak the word of Jesus, we need to be ready and expect both of these responses.

So response one, God's light for salvation is opposed.

Let me read verse 45 again.

But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him.

So Paul and Barnabas in the synagogue, huge crowd, and they faced hostility from the Jews.

And we're not left in any doubt as to what the motivation for this is.

It's jealousy.

The Jews in that synagogue, perhaps they've been there for years preaching, and they couldn't draw the crowds like Paul and Barnabas did.

Newcomers, Paul and Barnabas turn up, and almost the whole city turns up.

So it causes this horrible, ugly, ugly, burning jealousy.

And in a way, it's a bit puzzling.

We might think, well, did these Jews not understand God's plan?

Had they not read the scriptures?

Did they not understand that people outside of God's family were to come in?

Well perhaps they did, but they were jealous.

They didn't like that this was coming from someone else, from outsiders who appear to be more popular than them.

So their pride gets in the way of them believing.

So it says they start contradicting or reviling or blaspheming Paul.

We can imagine all these people, you know, jostling for space in the synagogue, really busy.

There's a hush as he starts to speak, but then as he starts to speak, there's a heckler, and then another one, and then they start the personal insults, the reviling of him.

It gets personal very quickly.

And Paul and Barnabas, their response to this, when they see this ugly jealousy of the Jewish leaders, it says they spoke out boldly.

We get a sense, there is real anger here from Paul and Barnabas.

They can see these Jewish leaders, they're making crooked the straight paths of the Lord.

They've been making it more difficult for people to come to God, and they are angry.

Verse 46, and Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you.

Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.

Three quick things to point out and to notice in this verse 46.

Notice firstly, Paul says, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you.

What does he mean by that?

Well, Paul knows this is God's plan, that the gospel would go first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles.

In that sermon that he preached last week that we read, the promises that he talks about the promises that God had made to God's people.

And those promises were for Israel first, and then for the Gentiles second.

And Paul knew that, and he knew the Jews had to hear the gospel first.

But notice how, secondly, how the response of the Jews is described.

You thrust it aside.

You thrust it aside, and you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life.

So the word of God has been held out to them.

The good news of forgiveness of sins that we just read about, of right relationship with God, and what do they do?

They thrust it aside, they batted away, they reject it.

And thirdly, notice how they are held accountable for their actions.

It says you thrust it aside, and therefore you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life.

So rejection, it's one it's one thing to reject a present from a friend, say, or or the help from someone, or or the love of someone, but it's quite a different thing to reject the word of the Lord.

What's being offered here is eternal life and salvation.

So this the strong warning from Acts 13, we can't read it without reading this warning, is do not reject the word of God.

We see here people are held accountable for the rejection of his word.

But after this response by Paul, well the hostility continues.

It started, as he described it, with this verbal abuse, but when that didn't work, they tried different tactics.

They tried political pressure.

So it says they use the leading men and women of the city to stir up persecution.

And this eventually means Paul and Barnabas have got to leave that town and go somewhere else.

And we're told when they leave they they shake off the dust off their sandals.

It's a sign of repudiation for their rejection of God's word.

And then in the second passage just read from 14, verse 1 to 7, well, we see kind of the same thing happening in Iconium.

Look at verse 2, the unbelieving Jews, they stir up the Gentiles, poison their minds against the brothers.

And verse 4 says, the people were divided.

So like the sword or the arrow, again, we're seeing this word of God is cutting to people's hearts.

So there's no one on the fence.

People are divided.

And then in Iconium, the hostility becomes so severe that there is a real threat of physical violence or death.

They're threatened with stoning, and they have to leave Iconium as well.

There is such a lot of hostility to God's word in this passage, isn't there?

You might wonder, why does God's word cause such hostility?

Well, firstly, it's because there is a spiritual battle here.

And in Acts, we've seen this in so many different places.

The Holy Spirit is going out and it is doing battle with the devil.

We saw that at the start of this chapter 13.

So we should expect there will be hostility when there is a spiritual battle going on.

Secondly, this hostility to the Word of God is there because men love darkness instead of light.

That's what the Bible says.

This is John chapter 3, and this is the judgment.

John 3 · chapter mention

The light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

People love darkness, love lies.

So it should not surprise us when the word of God caused hostility.

Caused hostility then, it causes hostility now as it goes out.

The word of God is still going to the ends of the earth, and it is still meeting hostility as it does.

So in many countries, Christians are still reviled, they still face political pressure, they still face physical violence, imprisonment.

And we know this is because there is this spiritual battle going on.

So we we should pray that God would protect them through that hostility and he would still cause his kingdom to grow through it.

But closer to home, I do wonder if we forget that we should expect hostility when God's word is spoken.

Perhaps when we face hostility for it, we think we've done something wrong, or we've explained things the wrong way.

Or perhaps we're afraid to speak the word of God because it might cause opposition and we don't know how we would deal with that.

But these verses show us that we should expect hostility.

It is normal and it is okay.

And it shows us God has always spread his light of salvation through and even and despite opposition.

So we see God's word meets opposition, but also next point, it causes joy as people are saved.

So response to God's light for salvation causes joy.

So we've seen the opposition from the Jews in these verses, but throughout this is contrasted with the joy of the believers, the Gentiles, the new believers.

And right in the middle of our passage, verse 46 again, Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you.

Since you thrust it aside and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.

I've already spoken about how God's word was spoken first to the Jews and was rejected.

Well now Paul and Barnabas say we're turning to the Gentiles.

And at first reading, it sounds like they're turning away from the Jews completely, but they're not entirely.

Yes, they they dust off their sandals as they leave.

But did you see in the next time in Aconium, they go straight to the synagogue first to re to preach to the Jews.

They know God still wants Jewish people to repent.

But they also know that God's plans are so much bigger than just bringing Israel back to him.

And in contrast to the hostility of the Jewish leaders, well, in verse 48 we see the joy of the believing Gentiles.

Verse 48 that 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.

And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region.

Well, the Gentiles they rejoiced because they knew what good news the gospel is.

The word of the Lord, which they glorify.

They knew it was good news.

The word of the Lord, this is what they heard last week in that sermon, all about Jesus and the salvation that was on offer, that could now be theirs.

The Gentiles can now enjoy what the Jews are rejecting.

Forgiveness of sins, salvation.

That's the cause of their rejoicing.

And the Christian life, it is marked out by joy, isn't it?

And we see it, we see it bursting out in these verses.

Even in the face of hostility, as we've just read, there is joy.

Even after Paul and Barnabas leave City and Antioch, what do the disciples do?

Well, they rejoice, they're filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit in verse 52.

And this joy, well, it can be ours as well.

Like the Gentiles in that passage, well, we can rejoice that we who were cut off from God were now included in his family.

And like them, we can experience that joy of seeing other people receive the good news of Jesus and become Christians.

What joy.

Back to verse 48.

There is joy as people believe the gospel.

But look how it is described.

As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

What a wonderful and interesting verse.

Did you notice earlier?

Again, the contrast.

Those who rejected the word of God says they judged themselves unworthy of eternal life.

They did it, they're responsible.

But those who believe, well, they are those who were appointed to eternal life by God, who were chosen by him.

And this humbling, it reminds us in our natural states, without the work of God to transform us, well, we are like the people described in John chapter 3, I just read out earlier.

John 3 · chapter mention

We love darkness and we love lies.

We're reminded it's only through the choice of God and through his grace that we can respond to his word with belief and have eternal life.

And what a wonderful verse this, verse 48 is.

So we know that there are people who are living in darkness right now who the Lord has appointed to eternal life.

So our job is to pray and to speak God's word to them.

And in the Lord's good time, we can trust that.

He will save those he has appointed.

He will bring them to Christ.

So we see God's word here bringing joy as he grows his kingdom.

Well, final point, how does he do that?

Well, God's light for salvation spreads as Christians speak his word.

Back to that verse 47, which I read at the start.

Did you notice how Paul introduced that quote from Isaiah?

He said, 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.

Paul saying, For so the Lord has commanded us.

Paul and Barnabas.

Just think about what that means.

Jesus is the light, Jesus is the Savior.

But he chooses to shine through his church, through Paul and Barnabas, and now through you and me, as we as we share the word of Jesus.

Jesus shines through us.

What an amazing truth.

And we see an example of this in the first believers in city in Antioch.

They heard the good news of the gospel and they passed it on.

Verse 49 says, The word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region.

So this was happening while Paul and Barnabas were still in that town.

But those who heard, those who believed the message and they received the light of salvation, they took it out to the villages surrounding it.

It's like everyone's lit torch and has taken it out to the villages.

And this is a hugely significant truth, this truth that Jesus shines through Christians as they speak his word.

We might think that we're unimportant.

We might think we're not very good Christians, but God's word says to us, you are hugely important, because you can bring the light of salvation to a dark world.

And many of us spend a lot of our lives in what are pretty dark places.

Perhaps you're the only Christian in your family or in your workplace or in your class or in your halls of residence at university.

Well, this passage says to us, look, there is no place that is too dark for the gospel.

If you're in one of those dark places, God's will is for you to be a light for his salvation to that dark place.

And how do we bring that light?

Well, it is through Christians speaking his word.

So God's word, we read that passage.

God's word is all over it.

It's mentioned so many times.

A few examples.

Verse 44, people gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

Verse 46, it was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you.

Verse 48, they glorify the word of the Lord.

Verse 49, the word of the Lord was spreading.

Verse chapter 14, they spoke, they spoke out boldly.

14, verse 3, God bore witness to the word of his grace.

It's all over this passage.

God's word is active through it.

So this is how the light of salvation spreads.

The word of God must be spoken by Christians to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

So this then, this has got to be the number one priority for Christians to bring the word of God to people living in darkness.

That's what the very first Christians did in Acts 2.

They received the Holy Spirit and straight away they preached.

They followed the command of Jesus, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

And as we do the same, as we pick up that light, we carry on the light from them.

It's like we we take our own little torch.

Well, we we don't do it alone.

It's easy to read Acts and to see people like Paul and Barnabas and to think, oh, they're such they're such heroes.

But the main character in this story, it's not Paul or Barnabas, it's not the Jews, the Gentiles, it's God.

It's God acting through his Holy Spirit and through his powerful word.

So the call to us from these verses is to speak the word of God to those in darkness.

These verses tell us we can expect hostility, we can expect joy as people receive eternal life, and we can expect that God will fulfill his purposes to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

Let me pray.

Father, we thank you for your Son Jesus.

Thank you for the light of salvation which has reached us.

We pray, Lord, that you would give us each of us boldness to speak your word to people living around us who need to hear it.

Please would you help us and please bring your salvation to others through us.

Amen.