Rejoice

Acts 5:39-42
"They were convinced by him, and when they had called in the apostles, they had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. As they left the council, they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus the Messiah."

The apostles were flogged = brutally beaten for teaching in Jesus's name...and they REJOICED that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name!

For one, let's look at the word rejoiced: v. intr.
1. To feel joyful; be delighted: rejoiced at the news; rejoiced in her friend's good fortune.
2. To fill with joy; gladden.
[Middle English rejoicen, from Old French rejoir, rejoiss- : re-, re- + joir, to be joyful (from Vulgar Latin *gaudīre, from Latin gaudēre; see gāu- in Indo-European roots).]

ok, so the apostles were filled with JOY and exuded that joy when they left the temple after being flogged by the high priests.

then, the word worthy: –adjective
1. having adequate or great merit, character, or value: a worthy successor.
2. of commendable excellence or merit; deserving: a book worthy of praise; a person worthy to lead.

the apostles found it a cause to rejoice that they were worthy enough to suffer dishonor for the sake of Jesus Christ. have you ever thought "man, am i worthy/deserving enough to receive this punishment right now"? that's basically saying that you have to earn or be deserving enough to be punished...and the disciples were rejoicing that they were found deserving enough and worthy enough to suffer for CHRIST.

let this be a lesson to us all, that when we suffer for the sake of Christ, it is something to be rejoiced over...that we were found worthy enough by God to suffer for His name's sake.

yesterday i had dinner with a guy named Mike. Mike is a big man on campus and does a lot of business-y things and entertainment stuff for his fraternity and for students at TCU. I always thought he was kind of a heartless fraternity prick, and didn't ever take the chance to get to know him. we ended up doing Frog Camp alongside each other and I saw Mike for who he is, and not what others or I think of him from just a surface viewpoint. we had dinner last night and seriously, this guy made me feel like i was doing Behind Closed Doors. I wouldn't say he is an atheist, for he believes in God, but he doesn't believe that we have to give our entire lives over to Him/values the importance of believing in oneself more than believing and depending on God. He kept firing questions at me left and right-- "why are the 4 gospels so different?" "why do you believe in God?" "why do you say things like 'depend on' and 'need' when talking about God? don't you believe that faith and belief in oneself is meritable?" "why does the old testament contradict the new testament as far as laws and viewpoints?" "why do you say that humans aren't inherently 'good' people? I think we all are good. i don't think we are born evil."

stuff like that.

i was so blown away, because not only was God there for me in that moment and spoke through me (John 14!) but i felt prepared because of the Behind Closed Doors activity that we did each week where I pretended to be an atheist. whaaaat? going into the dinner with Mike, i did NOT...NOT...expect our conversation to rotate around the Lord, at all. it was one of those moments that you realize that "everything works for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose..." like, this was ONE small reason why I was in Quest this summer, why there was an activity called Behind Closed Doors, why I did the atheist role every week, so that in the near future i could sit down at Panera with Mike and he could fire questions at me and i could sufficiently answer. god, you, are too cool.