Text:\u00a0 Acts 13: 38-49<\/p>\n
There were times when our ship would go out on patrol in the North Atlantic.\u00a0 We would board Russian fishing vessels 100-200 miles out to make sure they weren\u2019t taking our lobsters.\u00a0 We would be sent to rescue people from sinking boats.\u00a0 We would stand watch, work long hours and do our best to deal with the tedium of life at sea.\u00a0 At least once we were out for a month.\u00a0 No internet, no contact with our families.\u00a0 No mail.\u00a0 A long time out at sea.<\/p>\n
Then finally it would come time to return to port.\u00a0 Every now and then we would return at night.\u00a0 We would watch the horizon for those first lights of land that shined in the darkness.\u00a0 Those lights told us.\u00a0 We were coming home.\u00a0 Soon we would see loved ones waiting on the pier to welcome us. \u00a0Soon we could read the letters from those we so missed.<\/p>\n
A light that shines in the darkness.\u00a0 God often uses that picture in his Word.\u00a0 We can relate to that picture.\u00a0 When some kind of darkness surrounded us, a blackout, a dark, scary street, an emotional darkness and then finally a light.<\/p>\n
Well God\u2019s Word speaks of another darkness, a terrible darkness that enveloped every one of us.\u00a0 The darkness of sin and death. The darkness of being without God and without hope.\u00a0\u00a0 And then a light shined.\u00a0 It shined long ago in a place we\u2019ve never been.\u00a0 The Light shined in the darkness, our darkness.\u00a0 That light is Jesus.\u00a0 And The Light he shines is not some pinpoint of light on the horizon. \u00a0Rather think of the way the prophet Isaiah described his coming to the people of Galilee.\u00a0 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.<\/span><\/p>\n Today we remember how that light shined on the people in a town called Pisidian Antioch.\u00a0 Not in person.\u00a0 But through those that carried the Light of Jesus, the blessed Gospel. \u00a0And how blessed we are.\u00a0 That same light has shined on us all these years later.\u00a0 And it shines for still others as we, his church, bring it. So we say:<\/p>\n Shine Jesus, Shine \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ever had a problem you just couldn\u2019t solve no matter how hard you tried. But then someone came along and solved your impossible problem. Maybe a math problem.\u00a0 Maybe you were trying to fix your car. \u00a0No go.\u00a0 I was supposed to write a computer program.\u00a0 I had a problem I just could not find.\u00a0 I spent hours.\u00a0 Then I went to my friend, a math major.\u00a0 He looked at it for a moment and solved it.\u00a0 If it was left up to me, I\u2019d still be working on it.\u00a0 Ever have a problem like that?<\/p>\n You did. And so did these people in a Jewish synagogue one day long ago.\u00a0 It was the year 48 AD.\u00a0 The apostle Paul and Barnabus were on their first missionary journey.\u00a0 They had sailed from Cyprus to a seaport town called Perga.\u00a0 From there they made their way to Pisidian Antioch, Turkey today.\u00a0 On the Sabbath they went the Jewish synagogue and sat down with the worshippers.\u00a0 Some were Jews all their lives.\u00a0 Other were Gentile converts.<\/p>\n Then something happened that seems strange to us but was quite customary.\u00a0 After some portions of the Old Testament were read, the synagogue leaders invited Paul and Barnabus, strangers, to share some words of encouragement for the people.<\/p>\n Paul stood up and began to speak. I wish we had the time to hear all that he shared. \u00a0He took them on a guided tour of their history as God\u2019s chosen people.\u00a0 He reminded them of God\u2019s faithfulness often in the face of their sin.\u00a0 Then he pointed them to Jesus.\u00a0 How he had been rejected and crucified in Jerusalem and yet how it all happened just as the Scriptures said.\u00a0 Then God raised him from the dead and showed Jesus to be his Son, their Savior and ours.<\/p>\n Paul was there standing before a people like you and me.\u00a0 People with a problem, a terrible problem we could not ever solve.\u00a0 And worse yet, maybe we did not even care.\u00a0 I know there was a time when I didn\u2019t. Our problem was this.\u00a0 We needed to be right with God .\u00a0 So did they.\u00a0 But instead of looking where God\u2019s Word pointed them, many of them had made Judaism into one more work righteous religion.\u00a0 But trying to make ourselves right with God is like riding to the store on a stationary bike.\u00a0 You pump and pump and still you are in the same place.\u00a0 In the dark, with the wages of your sin hanging over your head.<\/p>\n But shine, Jesus, shine.\u00a0 He shines the Light of God\u2019s forgiveness<\/b>.\u00a0 Paul shined that light here as his servant.\u00a0 38 <\/sup>\u201cTherefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you<\/span>. 39<\/sup>Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses<\/span>. Shine Jesus shine.\u00a0 Shine on me.<\/b> \u00a0Shine on those here this morning.\u00a0 He has.\u00a0 He is.\u00a0 For this is the heart of the Gospel.\u00a0 Through faith in Jesus and what he has done for each of us, we are forgiven.\u00a0 That garbage bag of guilt is gone.\u00a0 We are justified.\u00a0 God looks at you just as if you never sinned.\u00a0 Shine Jesus shine.<\/b><\/p>\n You and I desperately need that light.\u00a0 So did these people.\u00a0 But Paul knew the history of his people.\u00a0 He reminded them here. Listen to how he put it.\u00a0 Sounds like my mother describing my teen years.\u00a0 He endured their conduct in the desert for about 40 years<\/span>. Paul knew the history of his people. So he looked out at the faces of the people before him this day.\u00a0 Both Jew and Gentile.\u00a0 Young and old.\u00a0 Men and women.\u00a0 Slave and free.\u00a0 His heart went out to them all. For there are so many things in this life we can take or leave.\u00a0 But not here.\u00a0 Shine, Jesus, Shine.\u00a0 He shines a Light we dare not refuse.<\/b><\/p>\n Paul had that concern for these people.\u00a0 He reminded them of another time in their history.\u00a0 When their forefathers had become so corrupt and unbelieving that God threatened this.\u00a0 There would come a time when he would allow the ruthless Babylonians to sweep down on their land. But what was the response of so many?\u00a0 They refused to believe it, even though the prophets told them.\u00a0 They refused to believe that the Lord would do something like that.<\/p>\n Now Paul stood before these worshippers.\u00a0 He told them how this Jesus had been humiliated and put to death on a cross.\u00a0 He told them that he is their Savior.\u00a0 That he is the way of forgiveness\u00a0 and life.\u00a0 Then he warned them:\u00a0 40<\/sup>Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you: <\/span>41<\/sup>\u201c \u2018Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish, for I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you.\u2019\u201d<\/span> That something was the very Son of God on the cross.\u00a0 And that someone telling them was Paul. As I tell you today.\u00a0 For too often people have said, that\u2019s foolishness.\u00a0 So he warned them.\u00a0 For Jesus shines a light we dare not refuse. <\/b><\/p>\n But some did here.\u00a0 44 <\/sup>On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. <\/span>45 <\/sup>When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying<\/span>.\u00a0 Think of Paul and Barnabus.\u00a0 How their hearts must have grieved for these people.\u00a0 These were fellow Jews and they were rejecting the One God had sent for them.\u00a0 The one their forefather Abraham was promised.\u00a0 The one who would come from the line of their King David.<\/p>\n They needed to understand what they were throwing away.\u00a0 Paul told them in no uncertain terms.\u00a0 Words that I pray never apply to any of us.\u00a0 \u201cWe 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<\/span>. Jesus shines a light we dare not refuse. <\/b><\/p>\n There is a book called Tortured for Christ.\u00a0 A Lutheran Pastor was jailed by the communists in Romania for many years.\u00a0 There he was cruelly mistreated.\u00a0 Yet he held on to Jesus.\u00a0 But more than that there he still shined His light.\u00a0 One day he was in the hospital because of the torture.\u00a0 Alongside of him was another man who began to tell him about a man he did not know.\u00a0 He said he wished he could thank him.\u00a0 He told this pastor that this man led him to Jesus through the wall of his cell.\u00a0 He now had hope. This pastor was that man.\u00a0 Shine, Jesus, Shine.\u00a0 He shines his Light in surprising places. <\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>It sure was a surprise to these Gentile believers.\u00a0 In some ways, they thought of themselves as outsiders, not quite part of Gods\u2019 people.\u00a0 Even the Temple seemed to say that.\u00a0 The Gentiles could only come into the outer courts.<\/p>\n Then they heard these words quoted by Paul. \u201c\u2018I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.\u2019\u201d<\/span> You heard these words in our Old Testament Lesson this morning.\u00a0 They pointed to God\u2019s Son who came as the servant of the Lord.\u00a0 Well here Paul applied them to himself and the others.\u00a0\u00a0 As servants of the Servant they were to be lights for the Gentiles.\u00a0 They were to bring salvation in Jesus Christ to more and more.<\/p>\n And here as far as these Gentile folks were concerned, Jesus was shining his light in a surprising place.<\/b>\u00a0 On them.\u00a0 Those that had been so far away. \u00a0When they heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord<\/span>\u2026<\/p>\n But this story is not unique.\u00a0 To this day, it has been repeated again and again. In you, in me and countless others.\u00a0 Jesus shines his light in surprising places.<\/b>\u00a0 Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.\u00a0 I once was lost but not am found.\u00a0 Was blind but now I see. <\/i>The Light. Your Light, Jesus and not just for me.\u00a0 Not just for you.\u00a0 For others.\u00a0 Shine, Jesus, shine.<\/b>\u00a0 And lead us home.\u00a0 Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 Acts 13: 38-49 There were times when our ship would go out on patrol in the North Atlantic.\u00a0 We would board Russian fishing vessels 100-200 miles out to make sure they weren\u2019t taking our lobsters.\u00a0 We would be sent to rescue people from sinking boats.\u00a0 We would stand watch, work long hours and do our best to deal with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":515,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions\/515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/b>I.\u00a0 He shines the Light of God\u2019s forgiveness (38,39)
\nII.\u00a0 He Shines a Light we dare not refuse
\nIII.\u00a0 He Shines his Light in surprising places<\/p>\n