Although God created our world perfect, sin has turned it on its head. As Paul and his team go about confronting sin and preaching the gospel of grace, their enemies say they are turning the world upside down, although they are really turning it right side up! In this message we examine 4 marks of the kind of person who turns the world right side up.
Teaching Notes:
People That Turn The World Right Side Up
Acts 17:1-15
In Acts 17:6 the enemies of the gospel refer to Paul and his team as those who “have turned the world upside down.” Of course, they meant it as an accusation and a slur, but we take it as a compliment. You see, ever since the Fall, this world has been turned on its head. God originally created this world as “very good.” Originally, this world was created perfect by God. There was no sin, no sickness, no death. The entire animal, plant, and human world lived in perfect harmony. You might say God created the world “right side up.” However, when Adam and Eve sinned, they plunged God’s beautiful, harmonious world upside down. When sin entered, sickness and death also entered. When sin entered God’s curse came upon His creation. When sin entered, instead of walking with God in the cool of the day, our first parents fled and hid from him, trying to cover their shame. Man’s mind, emotions, and will were distorted and perverted from their original perfect condition. Now, man no longer things rightly about God, he no longer feels rightly about God, and he no longer chooses rightly about God. The world has been plunged into disorder and chaos. It is upside down. Now, we have a cursed man in a cursed earth. If you take a cursed man and put him in a cursed system, he’ll get along in that system fairly well. But when you apply righteousness to that cursed system, you start making waves.
Well, fast forward to about 51 A.D. Paul, Silas, and Timothy enter the city of Thessalonica, having been born again. God has turned their entire world on its head. They have been made new creations, all things have become new. They have been turned right side up. And the message they preach to others, if believed, turns other people right side up. However, those that report what is taking place are still in their sins, so what they perceive is that these men are turning the world upside down. And, of course, a collision is inevitable. Of course, in order to turn the world right side up, you are going to have to confront sin, and call a spade a spade. And when that happens, all hell will break loose.
I want to talk to you this morning about the kind of person who turns the world right side up. Now, I find the accusation of the enemies of the gospel as amazing. There are Christians who live and die and have virtually no effect on anyone or anything. They don’t even cause a ripple. The rest of the world barely knows they’re alive. They just float through life. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live and die having no effect on the world around me. I want to be an instrument of God. I want to be a change agent. I want God to use me to accomplish His purposes. Someone once said there are 3 kinds of people in this world: those that watch things happen, those who make things happen, and those who don’t know what’s happening! Which kind of person are you?
John the Baptist was a man who turned his world right side up. When the Pharisees and Sadducees came to him to be baptized he cried out, “You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Mt.3:7-10). Righteousness is running straight into sin – there’s a train wreck for you! Later, John would tell King Herod, “It is unlawful for you to have your brother’s wife” (Mk.6:18). Where did that lead? To John getting his head chopped off. Men who turn the world right side up will pay a price for it!
Jesus Christ was the Ultimate Man who turned the world right side up. In Matthew 23, Jesus boldly denounces the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. He called them serpents, brood of vipers, and children of hell. You better believe He upset Satan’s apple cart. Where did it lead Him? To His back being made hamburger meat, and then his body nailed to a cross to die.
The apostle Paul was another man who went about turning the world right side up. Everywhere he went, he rattled his world. When he came into town, he didn’t just make an impression – he turned the cities into chaos! Wherever he went, there was either a revival or a riot.
This morning we are going to look at the kind of person God uses to turn the world right side up: his ministry will be marked by courage, content, converts, and conflict.
1. Courage:
A. Paul’s ministry in the synagogue in Thessalonica:
17:1 Amphipolis was 33 miles from Philippi. Appolonia was 30 miles from Amphipolis. And Thessalonica was 37 miles from Appolonia. So, when the missionary team set out from Philippi, they had set their sights on Thessalonica, 100 miles away. They didn’t stop and preach in Amphipolis or Appolonia, because Paul’s strategy was to establish churches in the great cities of the world. He knew that if he could establish the gospel in these strategic cities, that these churches would send out men to establish churches in the smaller towns and villages. Evidently, the team traveled 33 miles, and spent the night in Amphipolis, then 30 miles and stayed the night in Appolonia, and then 37 more miles and they were at their destination, Thessalonica. Thessalonica was the capital city of Macedonia, a thriving commercial city of at least 200,000 people. It was situated by the Aegean Sea, along major trade routes. We at The Bridge find ourselves in a very strategic place. Sacramento is the 19th largest metropolitan population center in the United States, with a combined population of almost 2.5 million people! I can’t help but believe that God has put is here for such a time as this. As we and other churches are faithful to plant the gospel and make disciples here, we trust that the gospel will take root, grow, and go forth all around this area.
17:2 Where is the first place Paul goes as soon as he gets into town? The Jewish synagogue. But what happened on his first missionary journey every time they went to the synagogue? They were persecuted! In Antioch Psidian the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and drove them out of town (Acts 13:50). In Iconium the Jews & Gentiles conspired together to stone the apostles, who caught wind of it and hightailed it out of town (Acts 14:4-6). In Lystra Paul was stoned and left for dead (Acts 14:19). Doesn’t look too promising to try to preach to the Jews in their synagogue, does it?! We figure that surely Paul will avoid the synagogue when he gets to Thessalonica, right? Wrong! So, why does Paul go there again, when he gets to Thessalonica? I believe the answer is simple – he believed God had called him to preach the gospel first to the Jews, and this is where the Jews gathered. God had given him a job to do, and he was going to do it! Paul had just come from Philippi, where he was beaten with rods, and thrown into the inner prison. Every time he approaches a synagogue it results in pain, affliction, and threats. In Thessalonica his synagogue ministry resulted in a mob riot, so that the disciples snuck Paul out of town at night. So, what does he do? Take a vacation? Lay low and get some rest for a while?
B. Paul’s ministry in the synagogue at Berea:
17:10-11 Whereas Thessalonica was a large, thriving commerce city, Berea was sort of a hick town, in an out of the way area. Berea was 50 miles from Thessalonica. The disciples must have figured that Paul was safe there. There was nothing happening in this little town – it was dead. Paul could just kick back and relax for a while and nurse his wounds. What does Paul do? As soon as he arrived, he went into the Jewish synagogue! You just couldn’t stop this guy. Nothing could keep him down. He had the same spirit as David Livingstone, the great missionary. When Livingstone was asked where he was prepared to go he replied, “I’m prepared to go anywhere, so long as it is forward.” The idea of turning back never occurred to Paul.
C. Our Need For Courage:
If we are to obey God’s will for our lives, we need courage as well. In Acts 20:24 Paul says “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” To Paul only one thing mattered – obeying Jesus and completing the ministry He gave him. What about you? What matters the most to you? If it is doing the will of God, that’s great, but you are going to need courage to do it. When Eric Van Patten challenged me to take the gospel door to door, initially I didn’t want to. I thought, “I can share the gospel on the light rail, but I don’t think I can do it on someone’s doorstep. I’m afraid I would be too intrusive.” But where does courage come from? A few years ago my dear wife gave me a wonderful Christmas present – one free skydiving jump! Now, that was kind of a bittersweet gift. I had always thought it would be great to parachute out of a plane, but when it came right down to it, I was scared silly. I had to go through all the mental exercises of reminding myself that people had been safely and successfully parachuting out of planes for many years, and that the possibility of something going wrong was extremely small, and even if it did, there was a backup chute, and that I would be going in tandem with an experienced jumper. You see, I had to increase my confidence in the guy I was jumping with and the integrity of the parachute. Courage follows from confidence. If God has called you to do something, and you are afraid, you need to build your confidence in God. The more confidence in God, the more courage you will have. Listen to David in Ps.27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Greater confidence in God means greater courage in your life to do the will of God. Confidence in God doesn’t mean that you are confident that everything will turn out just the way you want it to. Paul’s confidence in God didn’t mean an absence of all his troubles, trials, afflictions and persecutions. Far from it! But it did mean that Paul could face those afflictions, knowing that God would be with him, that God was for Him, and that God would work all things together for his good.
2. Content:
A. The Content of Paul’s Preaching in Thessalonica:
17:3 What was the focus of all of Paul’s preaching? Christ! Where did Paul go in order to preach Christ? The scriptures (vs.3). Jesus said to the religious leaders of his day, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me” (Jn.5:39). Jesus is the Primary Subject of all of the Bible. Paul knew that, so he would read the Jews’ own OT scrolls, and show how Jesus is their Messiah. What this means is that Paul was an expository preacher. The word ‘expository’ simply means that which exposes the true meaning of the text. Paul would read an Old Testament text, and show that it pointed forward to Jesus Christ.
Reasoned: the Greek word is “dialegomai”. It means to discuss or reason together. We get our word ‘dialogue’ from it. Paul wasn’t doing an hour monologue lecture. He would show how Jesus had fulfilled their own Scriptures, and then he would invite their questions. It was preaching with a Q&A session tacked on to the end.
Paul’s Logical Argument: His major premise: the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. His minor premise: Jesus suffered and rose from the dead. His logical deduction: Jesus is the Messiah. The Jews had a preconceived idea that their Messiah would be a conquering King, who would overcome Rome and establish his kingdom in Jerusalem. Other rabbis decided that there must be 2 messiahs, because their own Scriptures taught not only that the Messiah would reign victoriously (Ps.2), but that he would suffer and die (Is.53). Naturally, since the same person couldn’t be both a sufferer and a conquering king, there must be 2 different messiahs. The Jews called the messiah who would reign Messiah Ben David, and the messiah would would suffer, Messiah Ben Joseph. Well Paul showed up in their synagogue, and explained that Jesus was their Messiah, and that he had both suffered and died, and risen from the dead and would reign eternally.
B. The Content of Paul’s Preaching in Berea:
17:11 This passage speaks of the “word” and the “Scriptures”. Paul’s strategy was the same in both towns. He stuck to the Scriptures, the word of God.
The Attitude of the Jews in Berea: They were more noble than the Jews in Thessalonica. First, they willingly met Paul for a daily discussion of the Scriptures, not just on the Sabbath in Thessalonica. Second, they received the word with all eagerness, whereas the Thessalonian Jews were much more resistant to Paul’s message. The Bereans give us a great example of how we should approach the Word – eagerly, yet cautiously. They were not overly skeptical – they received the word with all eagerness. They were also not overly gullible – they examined the Scriptures to see if these things were so. Of, if believers today would follow their example, we wouldn’t have so many problems! At the beginning of my Christian life I was very gullible; so much so that I accepted an invitation to spend a weekend at a Moonies Recruiting Center! Over the years I learned that eagerness to receive the Word is great, but it must be balanced with a personal examination of what I am being taught to decide whether it is true or not. You will find yourself duped and deceived if you believe everything every preacher says. That is true whether you are listening to preaching on a Christian radio station, or watching Christian TV, or reading books, magazines or information on the internet. When we were first married Debbie would come home and be all excited about something she had heard on the radio, and rather than get excited with her I’d start asking, “Well, who was the speaker? What church is he a pastor of? Where did he get that in the Bible?” After a few of my questions, she would get frustrated and say, “Never mind! I’m sorry I asked!” I know I must have been very frustrating for my poor wife, but I will say that she has become much more discerning of truth over the years, as she has learned to be a Berean.
C. Our Need For Content: If you are going to be someone who turns the world right side up, you need more than courage. The cults show a lot of courage. They courageously go door to door for hours on end. The problem is they have the wrong content. They preach a false gospel. We need more than courage. We need the right content to match the right courage. So where do we get this right content? The same place Paul got it – from the word of God, the Scriptures. If you are going to be someone God is going to use, you have to become a man of the Word. Mark it down – every person God has used greatly has been a man of the Book. And there is no shortcut for this. Your knowledge of the Bible will develop as you consistently and painstakingly keep your nose in the Book, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. I have a challenge for you – if you aren’t spending time in the Word every day, start today! If you are new to the Bible, choose one of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John), and just begin reading through it, getting familiar with the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Talk the things you are learning over with God. Pray over all of it. If you have been walking with Jesus for some time, don’t neglect the Word. The Word not only brings us into New Life, but also maintains our New Life. Make the Word and Prayer a priority in your life. Paul would never have been able to do what he did if he didn’t know the Word really well, and the same is true of you. Make it your goal to really know the Bible. Start with one book of the Bible, and read it over and over until you can tell someone else what the main theme of every chapter is. And after you have read the word, and prayed through it, share it. You will learn much more if you teach what you have learned to someone else, even if it’s just your wife and kids. So share the Word with your family, or in a home bible study.
3. Converts:
Thessalonica: 17:4. “Some were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.” The Greeks were probably “God-fearers” who attended synagogue worship, but were not circumcised. So, we see a small harvest of souls, and the beginnings of a church planted here in Thessalonica.
Berea: 17:12. “Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.” Even though Berea was a much smaller city, it appears that there was a greater number of converts there.
Our Need For Converts: People that turn the world right side up won’t be able to do it alone. The reason they make such an impact is that they create a following. They make disciples who also turn the world right side up. You are multiplying the waves. If you want to make a difference in this world, you need to do it by making disciples who will make disciples. You need to invest in people. I’m preaching to myself here, because I’m naturally a task-oriented person. But we need to preach the gospel, and build up those that believe it. Are you laboring to make disciples? Are you laboring to mature those who are disciples. That’s the only way a disciple-making movement can be formed. We need to continually encourage one another to stay on mission, keep focused, keep building into people’s lives, and persevere through the inevitable trials and troubles that will come. Our dream here at The Bridge is to start a disciple-making movement. Disciples who make disciples who make disciples.
4. Conflict: when you courageously preach the truth and make converts, what will happen? Conflict! Satan doesn’t like it when you start invading his kingdom and rescuing his servants. When you start confronting sin, you’re going to get Push Back. You can count on it. So, what happened in Paul’s ministry?
Thessalonica: Acts 17:5-9. It’s interesting how often jealousy is the motive for persecution. Acts 5:17; Mt.27:18. The Jews never had to get their own hands dirty. They were always able to find some dupes to do it for them. They were masters of inciting riots. 13:50; 14:2; 14:19. In Thessalonica they had no problem finding the local low-lifes, and hoods, who did nothing but stand around looking for trouble. Why did they look for them at the house of Jason? Because that’s where they were living. Probably Jason’s house had become the place where the church gathered. What were the charges? They are acting against the decrees of Caesar saying that there is another king, Jesus. Now, of course, Paul did preach that Jesus was risen from the dead, and was the sovereign King of the universe. However, Paul never stirred up the disciples towards insurrection. So, this is just a trumped up charge with no basis in fact. Remember, this is the same charge that they leveled against Jesus. John 19:14-16. Why do the city authorities take money as security from Jason? They are extracting a bond, in which Jason had to assure them that Paul and his team would leave town and not return. If those terms were violated Jason would forfeit the money he gave as security. In 1Thess.2:18 Paul said that he wanted to come to them again and again, but Satan hindered us. Paul is probably referring to this bond that prevented him from returning to this infant church.
Berea: 17:13-15. The Jews came from Thessalonica, 100 miles away, and did the same thing – stirring up the crowd to riot. The brothers realized that it was too dangerous for Paul to stay, so they sent him off to Athens, leaving Silas and Timothy. Why did Paul leave them behind? No doubt, to help these brand new believers in Berea. Paul had left Luke in Philippi. Now he leaves Timothy and Silas in Berea, and he heads off to Athens all alone.
Conflict in Our Lives: If you want to be greatly used of God, mark it down – conflict is coming! You won’t be able to avoid or escape it. When we tried to share the gospel on the light rail train, we were politely told that we must stop. As I have gone door to door, I have had doors slammed in my face. Satan won’t take this lying down. We must be prepared to face the inevitable opposition that will arise. We’ve got to be people of backbone; people who won’t quit at the first sign of trouble or opposition.
Conclusion:
What about you? Are you a man or woman of courage? Do you find your courage through confidence in God and His character?
Are you a person of great content? Do you know the Word? Are you digging into the Word on a daily basis? Are you feeding your soul, memorizing Scripture?
Are you diligently laboring to see converts? Can you point to anyone in your life whom you have led to Christ and are laboring to help grow to maturity?
Now, if the above 3 things are true about you – you will face conflict. When you face it, are you persevering to be faithful through it, or do you lay down and play dead? May God help us to be the kind of people that will turn the world right side up!
______________________________
© The Bridge
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by The Bridge.
Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By Brian Anderson. © The Bridge. Website: www.TheBridgeOnline.net
Follow Us!