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.