Hope Builders Group
Join a Hope Builders Group to find the connection and support you need to grow your relationship with Jesus Christ.
__largepreview__.webp){kind=logo}
Spreading Joy
August 9, 2026
optimizing
- So how is your soul? I guess we're done here. How awesome is that? This sermon series, we just have a few more left in the sermon series called The Good Contagion, and I almost, and you might get a hint of that from last week and this week, I almost did the whole sermon series from The Fruit of the Spirit with the Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness, Self-Control, and there's one more that I skipped because I only did eight. But, what? That's another word for something, but yeah.
Okay. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Goodness.
Oh, goodness. Because the fruit is something that the world needs to see in us. Some Christians wanna domineer with the gifts of the Spirit or with great knowledge or anything else, but last week we talked about how love is such an amazing contagion, especially if the world sees us loving one another.
This week, we're gonna talk about the second one, which tells you I only got through two of The Fruit of the Spirit, is joy. That sometimes today, the world wouldn't know that Jesus said things like, at the Last Supper, when it was supposed to be so sad, but he said, I have spoken things to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full or complete. How cool does that sound? How does that make you wanna be a follower of Jesus Christ if your joy was complete, if it was full, if the world could see that joy in us? How awesome would it be? But sometimes, we appear like we're just cynical or we're angry or even depressed.
I mean, the world has a lot of bad things going on, but do we spend more time complaining about the state of our lives or the state of the church or the state of the world than we spend rejoicing in our blessings? Joy is contagious. Will you stand as you are able? Our scripture this morning comes from Acts 13, 48 through 52. When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord and as many as were appointed to eternal life will lead.
And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city stirred up the persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of the district. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium.
And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. The word of God inspired by God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
Amen. You may be seated. So this is early on in Paul's ministry where he, it says, and the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord.
They were pumped. Now rejoicing, the root word of rejoicing, rejoicing is what? Joy. I kind of gave you that foreshadowing early on.
The joy is, and rejoicing is just a way of expressing the joy you have within you. That the Holy Spirit puts within you to have that joy and then we express it. Express it.
Like when we sing and we sing with joy and we sing knowing how amazing God is. So who rejoiced in this? It says, those who believed and were appointed to a paternal life. Meaning those who, everyone who believed began rejoicing that this grace that God had in Jesus Christ was now for them.
It wasn't only for a certain group of people, but it was for everyone in this case. And they were so excited that God opened the door and let them in. I mean, they had their other gods, but somehow something stirred when Paul and Barnabas were speaking and they were like, yes, it's for me too.
Is that what everybody is like when you tell them about Jesus? Do they always go, yes, thank you for bringing that to me. It doesn't always work that way, but it sure did for a big group of people where Paul and Barnabas were speaking. And it says, after it talked about them rejoicing, it said, this was just part of the movement.
The word of God was spreading. It was spreading throughout the whole region. Meaning it didn't all come from Paul and Barnabas.
Once they shared the good news, if somebody tells you something great, what's the first thing you really wanna do? Share it. Pick up the phone and call and they had a good text chain going and they let everybody know as soon as possible what this good news was. You see, when it talks about the spreading of the Lord, the word of the Lord, and it talks about the joy, the spreading of the word of the Lord is the same as the spreading of joy.
Spreading joy is what follows spreading the word when people receive it and they take it into their hearts and their lives. But then it's not always so easy. Verse 50 says, but the Jews and sighted the devout women of high standing, the leading men of the city, stirred up their persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of the district.
Well, that didn't last long. It just started building and just started getting good. And then they did this.
You see, if you back up in the context of this, Paul and Barnabas were speaking, they were telling them about Jesus. And it says in verse 45, that when the Jews saw the crowds, they became jealous. And in verse 46, Paul answered them boldly.
And John Pohill says that throughout the book of Acts, when it says boldly, it usually means that he was speaking by the Holy Spirit, that he could speak boldly because he had the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And so when he started talking to them, he quoted from Isaiah 49.6 in 1347. And he said, I will make for you a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
If you back up in 49.6, God says, is it too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel? I will make you a light for the nations. Meaning, is it too light of a thing? Is this the only thing you're supposed to do is bring back the nations and you do this? Yes, you are. But part two is you share it with the other nations, with non-Israelites, with non-Jews, with the unclean Gentiles.
I would wager a bet if I was a betting man that y'all are unclean Gentiles. Paul was doing something new here. And he was sharing it with people who could not even be in the presence of Jews.
They couldn't shake hands. They couldn't eat in their homes. And Paul says, when the Jews started getting jealous and they were going, hey, why are you sharing this with the Gentiles? Stick with the temple, stick with our own people, stick with this.
Paul says, Isaiah prophesied about this, that we will be a light unto the nations. I mean, you're talking about hundreds of years ago and you're still not being a light to the nations, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, you can be a light to the nations. And God has opened the door for all these people that you don't like.
And all those people said, yes, amen. And they rejoiced and they were so excited. But then the others turned on them and they stirred up the devout women and the prestigious men.
And they had the power to drive Paul and Barnabas out of the city. And at that point in time, it seems like we just had the momentum going, Barnabas. And now they did this to us.
They destroyed what the spirit was doing. They didn't care about God. And sometimes we can be like that too.
It seems like the world is just so tough. And when we hear no's or we hear people say they don't like certain things about the church or about God, why would it just God let this happen? Some people think, when I was going through seminary and a lot of other pastors think you need to be mad about things or you need to be sad about the, mad or sad about the injustices in the world. And they are difficult to see people treated the way they're treated around the world.
To see how Christians in other countries like Nigeria are just persecuted relentlessly. So how can we have joy in the midst of that? How can we have joy when every year the number of people, the percentage of people in our communities just plummet that think you need to go to church or that come to church? How do you have joy in the midst of that? What do we do about that? Paul and Barnabas shook the dust off their feet. You remember where that comes from when Jesus sent out the 12 and then he sent out the 70 and he said, you know, go into the towns and villages, share with them, heal the sick, raise the dead.
You know, he was drive out the demons. They were doing all these miraculous things but some places wouldn't accept it. And he went out and he said, shake the dust off their feet as a sign against them.
And Paul and Barnabas shook the dust off their feet and shaking the dust off their feet. Pohill says it symbolizes they're ridding themselves of all the responsibility for unreceptive Jews. It's a way of not cursing people but just saying, hey, I don't have to wear your dust that you kicked in my face, right? It's a way of saying, I'm gonna go where God has done it and even in here, if it didn't keep going and going like we wanted it to, it affected lives, it changed people, it did amazing things.
So they didn't stop. Most of you know that I have a part-time bookkeeping job with Two Lines Pregnancy Clinic and we are strategically located right across the parking lot from Planned Parenthood. And so when we are in Two Lines, I'm up with the administrative offices but down on the main floor is the front lines.
And we have devotions every day of the week and I'm only there a couple days a week but when I went to the devotions on Thursday, one of the ladies downstairs came to the meeting and her eyes were bloodshot. So red. And when we asked for prayer requests, she said, you know the lady who was the walk-in, which a lot of times the walk-ins are the ones who don't make appointments.
They come in thinking they were going to Planned Parenthood and they come in and they minister to them and they offer, I can't even think of it, ultrasound, sonogram. And the sonogram will show them if there's a beating heart or anything else and so they talk to them, they let them know they're not alone. We're there for anyone who has unexpected pregnancies.
And she said, the walk-in left back across the parking lot. And the executive director said, it's not over, let's keep praying for her, let's keep going. And I got a picture of how tough it is to be on the front lines as a follower of Jesus Christ, how not everybody is gonna accept and receive Christ but that should not bring depression to the church.
We should be happy when we do what God calls us to do. We should be happy. Like Paul and Barnabas could have said, oh man, that was horrible.
They ran us out of town if they only knew how many times that was gonna happen to them. But they shook their dust off their feet and they went on Nehemiah 8.10 that Dana read, go your way, eat fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready for this day is holy to the Lord. Do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Now, if you look at the context of that, you go back and when they were trying to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem, remember, after Babylon sacked the temple, sacked Jerusalem and they had rebuilt the temple, Ezra came and rebuilt the temple with the people and then Nehemiah was called to go back and rebuild the wall and there were people frustrating him and trying to stop him and getting in their way. And you know, they're all also thinking when Ezra got up there and he read the law to them, they're going, oh, I haven't been following that very well and they start crying and weeping when they hear the law. But Nehemiah goes on to say, once they understood it, they went home and rejoiced when they understood the law because Nehemiah said, the joy of the Lord is your strength, the strength of the church, the strength of the believer is the joy of the Lord.
The last verse in here, verse 52 is really cool. It says, and the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. It didn't end the way they wanted it to, but they had joy because they were with the Holy Spirit and there were people they reached for Jesus Christ in that community who had never heard of Jesus before.
And those people were still rejoicing and the word was still spreading and they didn't dwell on the negative. They looked at what good things God had done and they praised God and they went forward with joy. Craig Keener points out that in 1345, the opponents of the gospel were filled with jealousy.
But here in 52, the believers were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. All right, I know you've been asked this question by someone, I know I've been asked this a lot of times. What are you full of? What are you full of? How many of you are thinking of all the honorary things you've done in your life? What are you full of? Jesus wants you to be full of joy.
He wants you to rejoice knowing that God is with us, knowing that God has blessed us, knowing that God has done great things for you and God will do great things for other people. Not everybody's gonna accept the word of the Lord. Not everybody's gonna see that the word of the Lord is the best contagion, the best news they could ever receive.
But your joy is contagious. Just like when you love one another, when you go through life with joy, when you're facing hardship, but you still have that peace that passes all understanding with that joy that's building up in your heart. They'll see that and they'll want a part of that.
Matthew 25, 21, this is one of the verses everybody loves the idea of God saying, well done, good and faithful servant. How many of you have just dreamed or thought about Jesus saying that to you when you came to the gates of heaven? Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in a little, I will set you over much.
Enter into the joy of your master. Life with God is joyous. Life in the Holy Spirit brings joy.
It doesn't say that it isn't without hardship. It doesn't say that life can't be tough. Has anybody learned by now that life can be tough, but we can face it with joy because the word of the Lord is in us and we can share that with everyone.
Let's pray. Gracious God, help us to have joy. Help us to know that our strength, even when it seems overwhelming is the joy of the Lord.
Help us to think about that, to remember it, to build on it. When we feel something building up within ourselves, hurt, anger, sadness, help us to remember your blessings. You are so awesome.
Every day, you are awesome just to be with us. Thank you, God, for the joy of the Lord. Thank you, God, for building us up.
Thank you, God, for doing amazing things. Even when everything seems so grim sometimes, we can have joy and rejoice in the name of Jesus. Amen.