The Joy we share
The passage for tonight comes from Acts, the first chapter starting with verse 9 and ending with verse 11. As we turn to God’s word tonight please join me in prayer:
God of song, Word, life, and all that is: We thank you for the chance to gather and sing songs that honor you. Bless us now as we enter into your Word. Give us new eyes to see your Word and new ears to hear it. May it sink into and guide our hearts and minds this evening as we read and listen and this week as we live it out; in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Hear the Word of the Lord:
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
This morning Pastor Clayton gave the context of the eight verses prior to the passage that we just read. As you may remember, the disciples have spent the last 40 days with the risen lord – learning and growing into the leaders of the church. They have just been told by Jesus to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit – a guide and an advocate from the Father to come to them. Tonight I want to pick up from that point in the disciples life. We have just read that as Jesus was done saying this he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of sight. This brings to an end the time spent at the feet of the risen Lord. The disciples have lost access to Jesus. Their Rabbi is gone again; taken away from them before they felt ready I am sure. The disciples were in a better place spiritually this time when Christ left them. This time they didn’t run off in fear or find themselves denying that they knew him. However, they were still left alone. Surrounded by a world that seemed out to get them and stop them from spreading the message that Jesus was asking them to spread. I bet, as they stood watching the cloud take Jesus away, there were some serious concerns in the minds of the disciples.
Verse 10 says that as they were standing there looking up, two men in white robes appeared beside them. I wonder how long they would have stood there looking up if the two men in white didn’t appear. If I put myself in their sandals, I don’t know how long I would have stood there. I do know that I probably would have jumped out of my skin if the two men in white popped up next to me and started talking. So the disciples of Jesus are standing and watching the sky, where they have just seen Jesus taken away on a cloud. We can guess that they were feeling a mixed bag of emotions right at this point. Two men in white robes appear and address them. The men in white ask this group of guys, “So what are you doing just standing there looking up?” The response from this group was probably a series of blinking eyes and blank stares. Parents may be familiar with this answer and how it is often followed by the verbal pause, “uh”. Getting this response may have prompted the messengers to continue and explain, “Hey, Jesus will be back. Not only will Jesus be back but he will be back the same way that you just saw him leave.”
This Jesus will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven! In the last month and a half, they had seen Jesus betrayed, put on trial, beaten, crucified, dead, buried and then three days later raise from the dead. Then spend another forty days learning at the feet of the risen Lord, only to have him ascend into heaven on a cloud after promising to send another – The Holy Spirit – soon after. They had to be thinking about the last three years as well - all the miracles, teachings, arguments that they had seen and been a part of; all of this would be spinning in their heads. They must have been on an emotional roller coaster.
We, however have a different perspective. We have the benefit of time and of the teaching of those very disciples to show us that our emotion should be Joy! This months issue of the Sunday School Guide has an article by Dr. Ronald Geshwendt titled Upbeat! He shares in his editorial that there is no good reason for Christians to be grumpy. Yes, we morn and we are sad. There are seasons for all emotions but overall Christians have many reasons to be happy for a large majority of the time. I have to agree.
Joy has been given to us by grace really. There are many places in the bible that one can find support for the idea that as Christians we have or should have little to worry about. In fact, in Matthew 6 and 7, toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that worrying will not add any time to the length of our life – ever. That God takes care of the lowliest sparrows so why wouldn’t God make sure that our needs our met. The problem is we get needs mixed up with wants. We then find reasons to worry about the wrong things or we worry about stuff that may we can live without.
The idea of Christians being ever Joyful is especially poignant for today as well. This is the Sunday that we celebrate the Ascension of Christ! We find Joy in Reaching up to worship the risen Lord who has ascended and sits at the right hand of God. We have the joyful good news of the life of Jesus and hope in the ascension of Jesus. This action and the message of the two men in white is the capstone of our Joy. In the story of Jesus we learn that God is real and loves us so much that Jesus was sent to save us from our sins. Jesus showed us the true depth of the love of God and how to love by becoming flesh and then suffering and dying for us. Christ rose from the dead and conqueror death for us so that we do not have to fear death and loss. Jesus then ascended into heaven promising that he would come again and renew the whole world!
We find Joy in the message that we have to share with others that God loves them too. We carry this joy with us as we go to work, to the store or downtown to Tulip time. Yes, there will be seasons of frustration in traffic, in parking lots, or waiting in lines. We will have aches and pains that make it difficult to be joyful and we will meet people who make it difficult to be joyful. But we have LOVE. We have the love of God and God loves us when we are unlovable or less than huggable – God wants us to love those around us as God loves us. We must reach out and be the joy in the midst of a life that may not have much joy. It has taken me a long time to get to the point where I can stop myself when someone is rude to me and instead of giving a cutting reply, I make an attempt to think about what kind of day would they may be having. What other people may have said or done that has lead to this point. Then I try to remember that I have been there and how big a difference it would have made for someone to love me enough to not cut me down one more time. Sometimes no response at all is the best one can do. It is not easy, but as believers we have something to share – a joy of being loved by God. We need to share that love and that joy with a lost and hurting world.
Our joy is not found in things that will fall apart or lose value or otherwise disappear. In an economy like this, people can loose hope. Our joy is not based on the car that we drive, size of the boat that we own, or the value of the jewelry that we wear. These objects can come and go but God is, was and ever shall be. The source of our joy will not rust out, get stolen, and doesn’t need gas! God is with us and around us and loves us.
We have the Joy of our salvation, we have the joy of the love of God we have the joy of being able to share that message with the World – those who are far off and those who are near. We must share in the Joy of not needing to be worried about so many Earthly things because our Joy is in Christ! We have a message of joy to share. Jesus is raised and ascended and he is coming again. We must share the hope of that promise and the joy of being loved by the creator and sustainer of the universe with those around us. AMEN
