Acts 13....

"And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 13:52)

I want to paint for you a picture this morning.  Imagine you are Peter or Barnabas at Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13).  You head off to temple, sit and listen to the reading from the Torah and towards the end of the reading, the religious leaders turn to you and ask you to share a word of encouragement.

What would your word be?

Peter, filled with the Spirit of God, stood up - and walked those gathered through the Old Testament and spoon fed them the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He took something very personal, familiar and that they could identify with and tied it into the Gospel.   And while many books and classes have been taught on doing just that, this is not what struck me today.

The people are so moved by their encounter with the Truth and so impressed by what the Spirit reveals through Paul that they invited him back another Sunday.  This time, almost the whole city shows up.  Imagine, the place is packed, everyone is whispering and sharing stories about what they heard last week.  People are anxious to hear what this guy, Paul has to say that has everyone so excited.  The religious leaders and devout Jews show up, see the crowds - and these men of God, who are suppose to teach, train and exhibit the Word of God, allow jealousy to creep into their spirit and begin to stir dissension against Paul and Barnabas. They get the devout men and women in their corner, and they begin to contradict what Paul had taught the week prior.  Even though, Paul began in the Old Testament, and tied it into Jesus - there is no limit to which false teachers will go to lead people astray.  But this is not what hit me.

Hearing the people being led astray and probably seeing the crowd quickly turn on them, Paul and Barnabas get up and speak out in boldness and declare that the Jews received the Gospel first, but have decided that they themselves are not worthy of eternal life, and so now the Gospel goes out to the Gentiles... there are about 10 sermons that could be preached, but still not what hit me.

The Gentiles in hearing that they can have a relationship with God, and that He loves them - rejoice and worship God - still not where I am going

This sends the religious leadership into a frenzy and they immediately begin to persecute Paul and Barnabas and DRIVE THEM OUT OF TOWN! Paul and Barnabas head out, dusting the dirt off their sandals as they go, not wasting time with the religious leaders, but moving forward to take the message of Jesus to wherever God leads them next... but still not what hit me.

"And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit." 

There we are - this verse, that I have so often skimmed over, was powerful today.  Think about the roller coaster ride that Paul and Barnabas and those who came to faith in Jesus in Antioch had been on.  Yay for Jesus - let's hear more, No to Jesus - false teaching, YAY for Jesus - it's not just for Jews, No to Jesus - persecution and run out of town.

I don't know about you, but my head would be spinning and I would wonder what the heck God was doing.  But what is their response - filled with Joy and Holy Spirit.

They grasped something I think all believers need to grab ahold of - our filling of the Spirit and joy should not, cannot, MUST NOT be conditional.  Whether we are facing revival, or revulsion - we can be filled with joy and the Spirit.  What hope we have, that we can serve God, be filled with His Spirit and have the fruit of His Spirit evident in our life, regardless of our circumstances.

I think about how often this is untrue in my life, and that leads me to repentance.  How often I have joy after a successful preaching engagement or ministry event or divinely appointed conversation.  And how quickly all of that can go out the window when something goes awry. 

Oh, to be free from the conditional emotional response and simply live a life tied to the Spirt of God, filled with His love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control...

Requires me to die to myself, live in Christ.

Difficult - maybe. 

Attainable - gotta believe it is!