An Uncommon Joy

This morning I have the privilege of introducing a dear friend of mine. Now we have been involved in Romania and other nations for many years as Dave Durnland has led us in the Tri-M ministry and of course this church has been very much involved in sending me over to these countries, but mostly to Romania. We spent most of our time in Romania. We went over in 2003.

It was our very first year. I met Niku. Well, we're not exactly sure what year that was. It was around 2006, 2007. And Niku was one of our translators. And so he translated us as we taught the Romanian brothers and in the modules intended to equip them for ministry.

And then Nick also, besides translating, also was teaching some of our classes. And so from 2003 until 2019, we've been over in Romania and teaching and being a part of that. Now you remember as Dave came to us and we began to support him as a missionary, in Triam, this is what the theme verse was, was 2 Timothy 2 verse 2. And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

And so the theme was, we're going to teach and teach until, you know, the Romanians can teach it to others. And so when Dave, as Niku said earlier today in Sunday School, as Dave retired, We all know Dave's not going to retire, but as he backed off from our ministry there, said to Nick and to another brother, Betuel, would you guys take this ministry? I mean, it's yours now.

We're backing out. And so Nick has essentially been involved in leading the ministry, and he's formed the Institute of Biblical and Theological Training, which is IBET. Sometimes you see that in our bulletins, IBET. That in Romanian, translated in English, it's Institute of Biblical and Theological Training. And so Nick started that. He's heading it up in the church where he is.

And not just there, but now again, thinking of taking the modules out to different areas of his country and some others as well. So Nick comes to us as one of the pastors from M28, a church in Bucharest, and as director of IBET. And he's going to share with us the ministry that are going to minister the word of God to us. So Niku. Oh, I forgot to mention Niku is here with Marta, the dear, famous Marta, who is my kids they just love her to death and their kids Nicholas, Ana Greta and Abby so those people hanging around the table are Nick, his family and those of you who have been a part of us for a long time, you know them alright Nick come and share the word of God Christ is risen.

He's risen indeed. Oh, yes. Finally. Yeah. After you got saved, I don't know if you went to a ball game. How many of you, after you got saved, you went to a ball game?

Like baseball, soccer, or football, whatever you want to call it, or American football. So I went to a soccer game, what is really football, okay? Real football. And I went on the stadium, and I was amazed by the joy of the people. I mean, the excitement, the passion. Everybody was so happy.

And they were not drunk. I mean, I don't know in the States, but in Romania, they will not let you go drunk on the stadium. At least, I mean, they will try their best. So it's just the excitement of that. And after I got saved, as I told you, and went to those games, I would leave the stadium sad. I'll go back home sad. because I was jealous for this reason.

My brothers and sisters many times do not show excitement and passion and enthusiasm and joy for something that is more and more. I mean, you cannot even compare it. So precious. You know, it's not soccer or football. You know, it's just this stupid ball. I mean, whatever the size of it.

We have Jesus. So, you know, even when I got saved, I came from an Eastern Orthodox background. I lived in a socialist country, and I still do, actually. It's Democrat now, but it's still socialist Democrat, so kind of America. and I remember I went I got saved and I went to church and I was expecting, I went to a Baptist church and I was expecting to see some happy and enthusiastic Baptist but it didn take me a long time to realize that people are not that happy People are not that excited.

People are not that passionate. And so I asked myself, what's wrong with this? Why do we have this? Okay, I know the contexts are different. In Romania, because of the fact that people have been living under a socialist system for a long time, maybe that's why they are not that happy, you know, and they don't even know how to express feelings. So I say maybe that's the fact.

You come in the States, you see more people excited, especially in LaRue. I mean, you come and people are very happy and excited. but sometimes you go to some people's homes and you don't see that excitement anymore and you wonder why are they happy at church and they're not happy at home. Anyway, people are excluded from this congregation. But an uncommon joy.

This is the title for the message this morning. And I want to read it. I want to read the last part of Acts 2. We've read, we started this morning with reading partially from Acts 2. And I'm going to finish that, basically the reading of that. It's chapter 2, verse 41, all the way to the end, 47.

And please follow in your Bibles because I'm going to be speaking in tongues. is going to be Romanian, okay? A tongue. So I'm going to do the reading in Romanian, okay? So please follow in your Bibles. Acts 2, 41, 47. They were guided in the teaching of the apostles in the sharing, in the bread and in the prayer.

Every soul was full of fear, and through the Apostle many wonders and signs were made. All those who believed were together and had everything in common. They sold their properties and assets, and they shared their money depending on how each one needed it. Every day they continued to meet in the temple, they cooked bread at home, they shared their food with joy and with sincere hearts.

They praised God and had a part of the goodness of the whole people. And the Lord added to their number every day those who were saved. Amen. This passage describes, we call it, ideal community. The ideal community. Though it sounds like it's the normal community.

It should be the normal community. so people have been waiting for the promise made to Abraham, Galatians 3, to be fulfilled, which is the coming of the Spirit. So the Spirit came, and it's amazing to see the birth of new Israel, which is the Church of God, the Church of Christ. and it's it's just the the first steps basically of this baby church of this baby community you know and it's you look back to this first community and you see at least couple of things in in this text you see togetherness you see people being together and i don't know about you but I read those I read those verses and I'm like I see excitement I see joy joy comes I mean joy is actually the term itself is in the text I see passion I see people that are so happy to be together they love it and it's actually talking about the 3,000 people that were added one day to the numbers of the apostles. So basically the descriptions that we've read are the descriptions of those 3,000 people.

New converts. People that just came to the Lord. And people that live the way they live. And this morning I would like ourselves to go back to this community and learn from this community. And I want to ask this question. Looking at this community, how can we live with this unusual joy, with this uncommon joy?

You know, you look at them and you see this excitement and you ask, how is this possible? How can we live like this? How can we experience as people of God and as communities, how can we experience this kind of joy, this unusual joy? And I see in this text at least three things. And Luke starts talking about an uncommon dedication. So I guess the first answer to my question will be showing an uncommon dedication.

Luke says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teachings. and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And Luke says, And amazement came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. Why did all this amazement come upon every soul Why many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles You know we have this question Why And it seems to me that that wonder, the zeal, the miracles were experienced because of what is written in verse 42.

And that is, they devoted themselves to four things. The apostles' teachings, which is the Word of God, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. So the first thing is that this dedication that it just, I don't know how you understand this, you know, this term in English, you know, dedication or devotion. To me, do you know people that are devoted and like dedicated, like their whole heart is there? when I think about this term, this expression I see somebody that is ready to die at any time for the thing that he believes in he's there he wants to go all the way he's ready to sacrifice anything, it doesn't matter why you ask this person he's going to be ready to say yes I'm willing to give up everything because I want to go all the way so when I think of dedication, that's how I think I think of a person that is ready to go all the way, no matter what.

And the first thing it says, they were dedicated to the Word of God. It's interesting. You know, I just said it. The Holy Spirit came upon men, Christians, now. Some of our contemporaries might have wished it was written something like this. and they all began to have all sorts of discoveries and revelation. New and fresh words were spoken through all the apostles of Jesus.

But he doesn't say that. Luke does not say that. The coming of the Spirit embolds those 3,000 to first devote themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the Word of God. The work of the Spirit is always, always linked to the work of the Word of God. Always. You cannot separate them.

It's very interesting. You look at it in this text. The Holy Spirit comes. And the first thing that you see in the community of Jesus is that they devoted themselves to the Scriptures. Because that's what the Spirit does. Right?

Jesus said that in John. And John records that. Jesus says, But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. What the Holy Spirit does, He takes the heart of people and just makes their hearts just to love the Word. The words of Jesus. Yeah. you know brothers and sisters maybe we're not that happy and we're not a happy community because we're not so so much devoted to the word of god and yes we are here we do we do a lot of reading but how much do we do the same reading at home with our families with our kids with our neighbors with our brothers and sisters when they come over when was the last time when before you know having a load of bread, we stopped and we read a psalm together.

How much are we concentrated and devoted to the Word of God? Maybe that's why we're not that joyful. Maybe that's why we don't show that uncommon joy because we're not that devoted to the Word of God. Yes, we are verbally, but in practice, we don't really show that. So we should learn from them. We should learn from their devotion to the Word of God.

And after that, it says, the second thing, they were devoted to fellowship. I mean, can you imagine those 3,000? After they got saved, the Holy Spirit converted them. I mean, imagine. I can close my eyes and see this. Sunday was coming up, and they were so excited.

Hey, today we're going to go to church. We're going to hear Peter again, you know, preaching or James or whatever. I mean, but they were so excited. They were so happy. They're going to be together again. It says that in text.

Look, it says they were joyful to be together. You know, how are we coming to church? Oh, it's time to go to church again. Isn't that sometimes we barely drag our feet to church? Why? Why are we not joyful when we come to church?

Why? Because we are not devoted to the fellowship. And I think Luke wants us to show here how important it is to be devoted to the fellowship. And that will bring an uncommon joy. Can you imagine a conversation like this? And I tried to create a conversation between two new converts in Jerusalem.

John and Timothy. We'll call it team. John and team. John, I haven't seen you at church for a while. Why aren't you coming to the church anymore? Oh, I do not need to.

I can leave my Christianity alone at home. I even have Bible study every other day with my family. So you really don't want to come to church anymore? So how are you going to break the bread? Timothy, oh, I can do it. I do not need Peter or James to do it for me.

I can do it myself. I can break a bread I can take the wine and drink it I don need James I don need Peter But what are you going to do with your children if the good Lord will save their soul Who is going to baptize them? Oh, I'll do it myself. Why not? I am the prophet of the family. John but what are you going to do if you get sick who is going to pray for you oh Timothy Jesus will he is the mediator I don't need James I don't need Peter I don't need anybody from the fellowship to come and pray for me I can pray for myself I mean actually Jesus will do John let me ask you one more question what is your family going to do if you die Did you think about this?

Oh, Timothy, the church will help them out. They always do. You should laugh. Conversation like this, can you imagine? I just cannot imagine. I cannot imagine a conversation like this, but we hear conversations like this so much in the context we live on, right? in our 21st modern century, the times have changed.

Today there are so many people calling themselves Christians but never go to church. How can that be? Sharing in with other believers and loving them will always verify our vertical relationship. How can we say that we love God and rejoice in Him when we do not care for those that are called our brothers and sisters? How? or when we drug our feet to go to church?

How can we call ourselves Christians? The third thing is the remembrance. It says they were devoted to break the bread together, and it goes with 1 Corinthians 11 where it talks about the Lord's Supper. So the cross of Christ was centered in their meetings. We know that from other New Testament writings that they were coming together and they were eating, yes, but they were taking the Lord's Supper.

They were remembering about the gospel of Christ that is centered to the gatherings. And they were devoted to prayer. and when I read this the two words together devoted to prayer and in the context of togetherness and how they were living their lives together I think this church knew the people that were coming they knew each other very well they knew their needs they knew their struggles they knew their problems how can you pray for somebody if you don't know that person? How can you pray for a brother, for a sister, if you don't even know his name or her name, or you don't know anything about them?

But they were devoted to prayers because they knew each other very well. They knew their needs. They knew exactly what they're going through. So when I look at this, I'm challenged. I'm challenged. I'm horrible at names.

I'm good at faces. But I'm struggling to remember my brothers and sisters' names and learn about them. And sometimes I'll pray, Lord, I met that brother. I have no idea who he is. Yeah, he shared about his life. And I'm just praying for him without knowing his name.

God knows. But we have to get to know our prayer requests, what we're struggling with. dear church why don't we experience the same uncommon joy perhaps we should speak the word of christ more to each other maybe we should have more real fellowship and not just social time maybe we should make the gospel more central in our gatherings maybe we should pray more maybe we should learn to pray don't forget there's a there is a practical aspect here How much time do you spend in the word of God? How much do you expect to be with your brothers and sisters each week?

How dear are they to your heart? How much do you pray for them? How much do you care for them? What's the second thing presented by Luke here? So after showing an uncommon dedication, Luke talks about setting forth an uncommon generosity. It says, and all who believed were together and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And Luke describes their unity in two ways. They were together and they had all things in common. They were generous in their interaction with each other and with their belongings. what this community of faith was practicing was not a primitive form of socialism it was not that but a generosity of heart towards the needs of those that belong to Christ together with them in the same body when you look at this you ask yourself what is it harder to share your time or your money with your brothers and sisters.

Because what Luke talks here, he talks about time and money. And I know a lot of people in the U.S. says time means money. How much time do you spend with the people that are your brothers and sisters? How much time are you ready to put aside to invest in them. Is there anybody in your church that maybe needs needs the blessings that God has given you, and that's why I'm talking about your money, that are not your money, are God's money?

How can we know each other better? How can we be part of this life together? How can we show this uncommon and generosity towards each other. You know what's interesting when I think about this? I see the Church of Christ, and I'm talking now general, investing a lot in orphans, in helping refugees, in just getting involved so much in social things. And okay, are those bad?

No, they're not bad. But the New Testament over and over talks about our hearts as believers being concentrated especially for those that are Christians. We have to do good first to whom? To the ones that are Christians. if you ask, go to church and ask money for an orphan, you're going to receive a lot of money. But if you ask for some new converts in India that they just came to know the Lord and they are in the need to build a community together and plant a church together, the response is totally different and I'm sad for that I'm sad and it's the same everywhere you travel in Romania in Romanian churches evangelical churches and you talk about you know the orphans and people that are in all those social places and you will have so many people Christian churches that will give you so much money.

But you go and travel in the same churches and talk about the new believers in India and that you want to help them to plant a church and start a ministry there and help them with their needs. And you leave those churches crying. And brothers and sisters I not talking about something that did not happen to me I talking about something that happened to me And I am wondering, where is that good, the first good that we should do to those that are in faith with us?

And especially, especially, there are so many believers all over the world. that needs our attention? How much do we pray for people that are persecuted in the world? How much do we strive to connect with them, to be there for them? I don't know. It makes me think that we should learn from this community. The last thing that Luke says, it says, displaying an uncommon daily testimony, and this one makes me feel very, very, very ashamed.

It says, When? Daily. What were they going to the temple? To worship? No. They were not Jewish people anymore.

They were Christians. So they would not go to the temple to worship. They were worshipping to God when they were coming in their homes. So they were going to the temple for another reason. And the reason was to tell the Jewish people that Christ is risen. And they found the Messiah.

And that was the reason they were going to the temple. And it's very interesting how Luke puts everything together. They were going to the temple each day. And I think what it says is they were taking people from the temple that they were sharing the gospel with. And they were having needs. They were taking them in their homes.

And they were feeding them. And they were breaking bread with them. They were doing joyfully. And the reason I believe that is because of the product of that. And Luke says, and God gave them favor to all people. And not just that.

The end is absolutely striking. And many were added to their numbers. So that means that God was giving favor to the new believers. And God was adding new believers to the new believers. And the church was growing. Why?

Because they had an uncommon testimony Daily They were going to the temple and reaching out to people And I think we should do that more often, if not daily. We should be bold to share about Christ. We should have the same joy. When was the last time when you invited a non-Christian friend to your home and you shared the gospel with him? And I know you guys, I know you do that.

But there's so many, so many, so many people that have to learn to do what those guys were doing. We have to have non-Christians in our home and share the bread with them. And, you know, and have Mihaela say, why are you guys doing this? Mihaela is a doctor in Romania that we had her in our home. And she could not understand why do we do that with her. we have to do that with people and share it with them, Christ.

And you know why do we do all of this? Because we love Jesus. That's why we do this. It's amazing. This community was doing what they're doing and the persecution happened. And they started spreading all over.

And in chapter 8, it talks about Philip right in the beginning of the chapter. And after that, there is such a striking word there. I think it's in verse 5, where it says that the joy, the city started being very joyful. So Philip came into the city, started sharing the gospel, doing this, doing what we read here in chapter 2, having this uncommon testimony, daily testimony to people.

And what Luke says, it says that the city was joyful. And they're not joyful because they're going to a ball game. They were joyful because Jesus was entering in their city through the testimony of the church. Here, Philip. So I'm praying that Leroux will become a joyful city. Not because people are drinking or having fun and entertainment, but because Jesus goes to more and more homes.

Amen? And I pray the same thing for Bucharest. Bucharest is a joyful city, but the joy that the people have is not the authentic joy. It's a fake joy. And that's why they're joyful during the night, and during the day they cry and they're in depression. Because that's not joy.

That Satan joy It not the joy of the gospel the joy of the salvation And I pray for Bucharest more and more people will have this joy And it's amazing. When you see all of this, you wonder, why? Why? Why a community should look like this? It's because our Savior looked like this. Was our Savior devoted?

Yes. Devoted to what? to the word of the Father and to the works of the Father. I came to do the works of my Father. I came to do what? His will. And he was devoted.

Devoted to the point of what? Of his death. So that's why this community was devoted because they seen Jesus showing that devotion. So I think when thinking about all of this, you know, we should pass this community and look to Jesus and say, Jesus, we want to learn from you to show the same devotion. Jesus showed an amazing devotion to his death. Was Jesus generous?

Paul says in 2 Corinthians Jesus was so generous that he became poor so you can become rich amazing I don't know anybody else that is more generous than our Jesus nobody else so generous and you know this morning you want to have this uncommon joy you have to meet this person Jesus he was so dedicated so dedicated to the point that he gave his life he was so dedicated and he was so passionate about about his father and about the good of his people that he gave his life and he became poor so you can be rich and what can be what can you have more than have Jesus? nothing so this morning I encourage you if you want to have that joy psychology, not even biblical counseling is not going to bring that what's going to bring that is Jesus Jesus can bring that joy because he had an uncommon joy and the communities that Jesus has been forming and forming and giving birth are the same communities the communities of joy may the Lord help us to have such an uncommon joy like our Savior Jesus. Amen.