Sermon: "A Community of Joy"

Third in the "A Community of Light" series.
Delivered December 11, 2005 by Rev. George Antonakos.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

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... they heard this Sunday is about joy. Pastor John and I have been taking our cues for our sermons form the traditional meaning of each of the Advent candles; so we come to joy this 3rd Sunday. I may have shared this with you before, but a Sunday school teacher asked the class, why is that third candle pink? And the little girl said, "Oh, maybe because this time God is expecting a girl." But actually it's got nothing to do with that. It's got to do with pink color because of a practice that happened ages ago, centuries ago. Sometimes in the Protestant Church we lose connection with the traditions of the church across 2,000 years and really Advent was a time of winter fast. It was like a second Lent. People would fast and do spiritual disciplines and sometimes they would grow solemn about it and the leaders said, "You know what, we don't want to grow too solemn because of what we are celebrating. We are looking forward to something that is so great and joyous" and so they introduced Rose Sunday. And that's where the pink candle comes from. It's kind of a spiritual over-the-hump Lenten emphasis. We are almost there. Hang on because God is coming to you. We are waiting for his coming; not just remember his coming, we are waiting for his coming again and so many different ways that happened to us as we walk with God, but ultimately in the second coming. And when this happens the focus ought to be on joy. Remember what we are joyful about.

I had an experience of joy this past, actually last month. I shared it with some of you, but it was just wonderful and I was just bursting with joy. My son, I don't know what got into him, but he said he would like us to join him and his girlfriend for dinner in the middle of October and he was going to propose to her right on the spot. And more than that, one of the reasons that he invited us to be there was because he was flying in her father from Texas who she hadn't seen for six months and it was going to be this humongous surprise. And so, we went out to dinner. My son George and his father-in-law to be, whose name is Jack, the three of us got to the restaurant early and Ellen was playing along and keeping Mandy, the daughter-in-law to be, so Ellen and the second Mandy were coming to the restaurant. So Jack is hiding in the back.

George and I are sitting at the table and Ellen and Mandy come in and sit down. She sits with her back to the door and before too long, after I think the waiter poured the water he gets down on one knee and it was pretty quiet in the restaurant and he opens that little black box and he shows her the ring. She knew it was coming and yet tears started to flow and his birthday was the day before and he got down on his knee; he must have gotten this romantic thing from me. I don't know, but he gets down on one knee and he opens the box and he says, "You know, you would give me the greatest birthday present ever if you would say yes." And he said, "But before you say yes, I want your dad to hear this on the speakerphone, on the cell phone." So he calls Jack in the other room, which is the cue to come in. He comes in and her back is to the door. She does not see him until he's a foot behind her chair and she still doesn't see him, and George says, "Well, what's your answer?" And she says, "Of course, yes." And he goes, "Well, your dad is hearing this" and she turns around and sees her father and they embrace. She is just overwhelmed. I am not exaggerating. We exaggerate, when we say you thought they were going to faint. I really thought, literally thought, she was going to faint. And she was so overwhelmed by this whole thing; I mean the engagement and then her dad right there, she couldn't eat the rest of the night.

And as I was watching all of this, my soul was just bursting with joy, not just because of the experience that I was seeing right in front, because really this experience that I am describing for you is a dim reflection of something greater, but I got to thinking about it and I thought you know there is going to come a time when all of us who love the Lord Jesus are going to turn around and there he is and he's going to embrace us and this is the emphasis of the Thessalonian community about joy. Their joy was based on the fact that they believed that Jesus was going to come any day, and as we go through this Book of Thessalonians, you are going to see the mention of joy over and over again, but also the mention of connections with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because is there any greater news that's ever been announced than the angels news on the hillside, behold I bring you tidings of great joy. Today in the City of David is born for you a Savior, a Savior; someone who will save you from your sins.

You know, how about if we play that what we missed. Let's play that. You know what, I know you know it, but I want us to sing it here because I was thinking about this; everything is for a purpose. I want us to look at this verse because this is what the good news, the most joyous news is about. So let's sing what we have in here. It's hymn 56, verse 6. Okay. Let's sing it together. (congregation sings verse 6 of Noel) That's what the news is about. That heaven and earth are of not; they are going to be one and the kingdom of God will be the kingdom of his Son, our Savior and in preparing to celebrate Christmas joy in those olden days they said, "Don't get too sad. Look at that pink candle." Joy is a deep recognition of divine favor in concrete form; it's a deep recognition of divine favor in concrete form. My spirit magnifies the Lord. My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Why? Because Mary knew not only that the Savior was coming, just as we sang, but that the Savior was coming to her and through her would bless the world. That's joy. Divine favor in concrete form. God can use you and me to make a difference in the world.

The other focus of our series has been about community, community of joy in Thessalonian, our community of joy and again as I share are focused on the coming of Jesus. Now, each week we have looked farther back into the community also and while we are not focusing on the Jesse Tree too much at 10 o'clock, we remembered Ruth and there is a couple of little sheaths on one of the ornaments, and we remembered David, and there is a crown and we remembered Solomon and I think that's a robe of wisdom and we remembered how God through the lineage of Jesus was working in community always anticipating the coming of the Messiah. So we want to look at that today in 1st Thessalonians, chapter 5 and I invite you to turn to page 837 and we are going to look at a text that emphasizes how a community can please God. That's what this is all about. In our waiting and our anticipation and in our celebration, are we pleasing God? Is our life as a church pleasing God? Are we as a community experiencing joy together? And so we are going to look at 1st Thessalonians, Chapter 5, Verses 16 to 24. I am going to read it for you, but I want to go back and put it in context after we read it. Let's pray.

Lord we thank you for your grace and love made known to us at all times and in all places. I pray that your Holy Spirit would speak to our hearts and that we would know the joy of Jesus as we read this text and look at these words. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it."

Now we are going to go back to the beginning of the book, it's a very short book, but the Thessalonians were a community of joy. Historically, if you were to go to Acts, Chapter 17, don't' do that now, but if you want to read sometime when the Thessalonians was first, it was in Acts, Chapter 17 when Paul and Silas were going through northern Greece and they preached. And it says that a few Jewish people and many devout Greeks and not a few prominent women believed and the Church of Thessolonia was born. And in that context there was tremendous persecution. Immediately Paul was persecuted. The people were persecuted. He went to Baria to preach in another place. The persecutors followed him down there. They were all over the place. This word that came to the Thessalonians was immediately followed by persecution and so if you look in Chapter 1 in Verse 6 he says, "You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. In that verse we see that joy can co-exist with suffering. They are not mutually exclusive.

We also see that joy is given by the Holy Spirit. It's a gift or a fruit of the Holy Spirit. And it's in response to the welcoming message of Jesus; of welcoming the message of Jesus in our lives. Now anybody who has welcomed Jesus and experiences that union that we have when we do knows what it means to experience joy and in a congregation this size, I know that there is always someone who is not sure about their relationship with Christ. And so, as a small gift at the welcome center we have decided that we are going to make available a little booklet called, Seven Wonders and they are wondering questions. I wonder why I exist. I wonder is there a God. I wonder why life is so unfair and so forth and so on. There are seven questions and there is very nice answers to each one of these questions that help you think about the hope that lies in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. You can pick one of these up at the welcome center as you leave or if you know a seeker, then you want to give me that as a gift, you give them that as a gift. It's a way of emphasizing the message of the gospel.

But the Thessalonians when they heard this message they received it with joy in spite of severe suffering and severe persecution. You know every reference that Jesus made to his desire that his joy would be in us, every time he prayed in John 17 and he said, "Lord I want them to experience the joy that I had with you before the foundation of the world, every time he taught about it, every time he prayed about it, it was in reference to his own death. It was within 24 hours of the cross and he said, "I want this joy, my joy to be in them" so it doesn't have anything to do with suffering.

Like a story I heard of Robert Coleman. He wrote, "The Master Plan of Evangelism" and he was preaching in Peru. And as he was preaching he had a translator and after the sermon there was a song and the people were singing of course in Spanish and he noticed during the song that it seemed to him, I don't know if this literally happened, but it seemed to him as though all the faces of the congregation started to shine and he leaned over to the pastor and he said, "What are they singing? He said, "They are singing Romans 14:8" and he wasn't quite sure what that meant and the pastor said, "You know that passage in Romans 14, "If we live, we live unto the Lord; and if we die, we die unto the Lord. So whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's." That is what they were singing. And tears started to run down his face because he knew that after this service was over they were going to go back through the mountain passes to places that were basically overrun with the shining path guerrillas and their lives could be snuffed out any minute, any day, but they are singing with joy and their faces are shining. If we live we live unto the Lord. If we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live or we die, we belong to the Lord.

Paul wrote that he was worried about his friends that the persecution might cause them to cave in and his joy would be lost and so if you would go over and you will see at the end of chapter 1 how he ties in, they turn to God from idols to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath and then over in chapter 2, verse 14 he says,

"For you, brothers, who became imitators of God's churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus:, You suffered from your own countrymen on those same things those churches suffered from the leaders of the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out."

And he was concerned that they would be like the seed sown among the rocks you know, they come up real quickly but then because of persecution they would fall away. But look at what he says; look at what he says at the end of Verse 2, "For what is our hope, our joy or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes. Is it not you, indeed, you are glory and joy" and he goes on to say how their faith stayed steadfast and how he sent Timothy to find out how they were doing and in Chapter 3, Verse 8 he says, "Now we really live since you are standing firm in the Lord, how can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you." That's where joy comes from; the community of faith.

You know one reason, a good reason to be a part of a small group? It's so great to know that in Central Presbyterian Church I think over 300-400 of us are in some kind of small group experience; about 220 people in small groups that meet in homes and others that meet in the church. There are a number of small groups. This is a wonderful thing because we have joy and experience joy when we come together and pray and look at the word of God and support each other. That's what Paul is saying. That is where joy comes from, from the community of faith.

I remember the joy of my wedding day, 32 years ago. By the way, this is Scott and Ruth Poehleman's 62 anniversary today. They are back there. And they will attest to what I am about to say, but I remember standing at the front of the aisle when Ellen was walking down that aisle and I was ready to burst with joy again. I said here is the woman that I am going to spend the rest of my life with, a relationship that is going to be constant mutual joy. Now there has been a few days where the joy went south a little bit, you know, but your excited because of the experience of community with another person who you are intimate with and Scott and Ruth can attest to that even more than we can.

In the letters of the Apostle John he says, "I have no greater joy than this than to hear my children walking in the truth". What a great joy that gave to Paul that they were faithful. Parents, isn't it true that no matter how old your children are that you are so joyful when you know that they are doing well? Right? Even if their circumstances are not going well, if you know they are doing well in those circumstances you are joyful, because they are trusting in Jesus. I got a Christmas card just the other day from friends we made when I was in seminary in Holland, Michigan 20 something years ago and this lady has always written us. She just kept up with us and we with her and she told us about her three boys all through these years and when they got married and this and that, but then she says this in her card, "We had a very unhappy January this year when Nolan's wife left him after six months of marriage." She put in quotes, "She didn't want to married anymore". This was a real heartache for all of us, but Nolan is doing well at the present time. He keeps very busy with his engineering job, bike riding and training for a triathlon next year. He has some good friends that have helped him through all of this." In other words, she was expressing a certain level of joy because she knew that in spite of the difficulty he was not letting his whole life be shaped around the loss, he was focusing on Jesus and the community of Jesus to get him through.

At the end of Chapter 3 we come to another Advent emphasis, when Paul says, "May He, the Lord Jesus, strengthen your heart so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones." There it is again. They thought Jesus was coming any day, any minute. And look at Verse 1 of Chapter 4, "Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God." That's what all of these instructions are all about. Are we pleasing God in our lives? He says you are, but then he goes on to give them instructions. He says, refrain from sexual immorality. He says, live a holy life. Make it your aim and your ambition to lead a quiet life. Don't be a busybody. Right? Then he talks about the coming of the Lord. He takes a whole chapter almost and talks about how Jesus will come with the archangels of heaven and we will all be caught up with him in the air. The dead in Christ will rise first and joy is flowing in that knowledge that we will be with Jesus and he talks about how it is going to come like a trap and like a thief and then we come to the text that we read today. Rejoice always. This is how to please God now. I am going to wrap it up for you. This is what it says. This is how to please God. Rejoice always. Be glad, that's what it means.

I noticed on the bulletin board out there in the hall that GLAD, the acapella group GLAD was singing a couple of days ago in the area. I remember their signature song, Be Ye Glad and part of the lyrics go like this.

"In these days of confused situations and these nights of restless remorse, when the heart and soul of a nation lays wounded and cold as a corpse, from the grave of the innocent Adam comes a song bringing joy to the sad for the price has been paid for your ransom, now open your heart and be ye glad, be ye glad, every debt that you ever had has been paid up in full by the grace of the Lord. Be ye glad, Be ye glad, Be ye glad."

And that's what Paul is saying. Rejoice always. Why? Because your circumstances are right? No. Because your debts have been paid, that you are accepted as a child of God, you are bound for heaven. Jesus is coming. You are going to turn around one day and there he is going to be. Rejoice always. These are three continuities; Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, pray with a conscious knowledge that Jesus is not just up there coming, he is with us right now as we walk with him and then in everything give thanks because this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do this all the time no matter what's happening.

Like a woman at a prayer meeting that the pastor had told about. She said, "Pastor, I have some very tragic news. My husband was charged with narcotics possessions and he went to jail; he's gone to jail for one year." She goes, but I started to rejoice and give thanks because I have been praying for him and I am kind of glad that it happened. And even better, he came to the Lord, he came to know the Lord. He turned and repented and came to accept and welcome Jesus and his love and his heart and now when I go sit with him at prison visits, we don't sit there and moan about how long he is going to be there. We pray and say, "God make his ministry in this jail like Paul's ministry when he was in jail so that somebody else might come to know Jesus Christ." You know the work joy in Greek is Cara. Anybody named Cara? It's a great name, joy. Grace is Carice. You cannot separate the grace of God and the joy that comes from knowing that grace.

And Paul goes on and says that if there is no joy inside, if all the rejoicing and the praying and the thanksgiving has wound down to a trickle or has stopped, then listen to what these verses say because this may give a clue as to why that has happened. He gave three continuous imperatives and now he is giving three negative imperatives. He says, number one, don't put out the spirits fire. Quenching the spirit is saying no when the Holy Spirit says yes, when God is speaking to you and telling you to do something and encouraging you to do something and you say no, you are quenching the spirit. And you know what, you don't just have to quench the spirit in your own life, you can quench the spirit in somebody else's life.

A little girl came home from church one day and she said, "We learned how neat it was to be a missionary and mom when I grow up I want to be a missionary." And her mother looked at her and said, "Well that's nice, but you will make more money in computers." See you can rain on somebody else's parade when the spirit of God is speaking to them out of your own quenching of the spirit. And then he goes on, do not put out the spirit's fire. Don't treat prophecies with contempt, don't resist preaching and teaching, don't be an unteachable person, that's a major joy stopper when you stop gaining wisdom through the Word of God. But when that preaching and teaching and word of knowledge comes, test it. See if it's the real thing and hold fast to what's good about it and let go of what's not.

Avoid every kind of evil, that's the third thing. The way that we test it is we say, "What did Jesus teach?" This word of knowledge, this teaching, this theology, what did Jesus teach and what did the scripture say and we align it with that as much as we can. Avoid every kind of evil. Whatever you know God wouldn't want you to be involved in, quenching the spirit, rejecting the word, indulging in lust, those choices drain our joy and empty us of joy. And if that has been going on for you, listen to Verse 23 because this is the good news. May God himself, no matter what you are dealing with, no matter how you are doing, that God of peace himself sanctify you through and through. God is at work. He wants you to return to him. He wants you to come back and be with him and listen to him and to love him and to walk in community with others and stop being isolated. May your whole spirit, soul and body, you see how the scripture thinks of the whole person. Spirits want to be kept blameless, irreproachable of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the one who calls you is faithful to be trusted is the one who calls you and that one, that god will substantiate his promise. That's joy knowing that these things are true.

Let me close with a quote from C.S. Lewis. He says,

"Happiness is never in our power and pleasure is. I doubt whether anyone who has tasted joy would ever if both were in his power exchange it for all the pleasure in the world."

This is day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for the joy of knowing Jesus Christ regardless of our circumstances and we pray that you would seal this word to our hearts so that we might in joyous community hold forth the light so that others might come to know your grace and we pray it again in your holy name. Amen.

© 2005, Rev. George Antonakos
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org