Turning the World Upside Down

Turning the World Upside Down

“Turning the World Upside Down”

(Acts 17:1-15)

Series: The Church on Fire!

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

First Baptist Church Henderson, KY

(2-10-08) (AM)

 

Take your Bibles and open to Acts, chapter 17.

 

If you are visiting with us we have been making our way, verse-by-verse, through the book of Acts in a series of messages entitled, “The Church on Fire.”  The key verse to the entire book is Acts 1:8 where Jesus says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

 

In chapter 17 Paul and his missionary team have entered into modern-day Europe and are making their way west.  In our study this morning we read of their ministry in about 51 AD in two major cites, Thessalonica and Berea.  Let’s read about it now.

 

  • Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

 

1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 

2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 

3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” 

4 And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. 

5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 

6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. 

 

  • Pray.

 

Introduction:

 

We said last time that wherever the Apostle Paul went you could expect the breaking-out of either revival or riot.  And there is a sense in which that remains true today.  When the true Gospel does its work people will either receive it or they will resist it, and sometimes they resist it with a vengeance.

 

It’s an interesting phrase, this phrase in the last verse we read there before praying, verse 6, those who resisted the Gospel cried out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”  Another way of translating that phrase is, “These guys who have caused trouble all over the world are now causing trouble here!”

 

The Gospel can be a troubling thing to us.  The Christian faith can truly “turn our world upside down.”  I know of times when I heard the Gospel being preached and it turned my world upside down.  It troubled me.

 

In the fall of 1989 I recall visiting for the first time a small country church in North Georgia where I listened to a preacher whose preaching turned my world upside down.  It disturbed me.  It troubled me.  It convicted me.  That was necessary, of course, because there were some things that needed to change in my life and God was using that preacher and that church to bring about the change.  My world was turned upside down and that was good.

 

That’s the positive work of the Gospel.  That’s what Christianity is all about.  We hear the message of Jesus Christ and it is at once a message of consolation and a message of conviction.  We are troubled by what we hear because we understand we have this sin problem and something needs to change.  When we yield to the power of the Gospel we then experience freedom, salvation, joy, and happiness.

 

This passage gives us a few reminders about the Christian faith.  We need to remember three things about the Christian faith as we study together this morning.  First,

 

I.  Christianity is a Reasoned Faith (1-4)

 

There are some who believe that Christianity is a blind faith.  Have you ever heard this?  Some believe you have to sort of “check your reason at the door” if you’re going to be a Christian.  You know: “Christianity isn’t an intellectual faith.  You’ve just got to believe and trust your heart” and that sort of thing.  Well ladies and gentleman, I want to submit to you that Christianity is a reasoned faith.  Following Christ requires both heart and head.  Christianity is not just feeling, it is thinking.  Let’s see that as we look more closely at verses 1-4.

 

1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 

 

In one verse Paul and his traveling companions of Silas, Timothy, and others travel about 100 miles from Philippi to Thessalonica.  They are traveling through a roadway known as the Egnatian Way, a roadway that leads eventually across the Adriatic Sea and into Italy.  So they stop in this city of Thessalonica, a major port city, a city regarded in those days as the “lap of the Roman Empire,” a commercial city of some 200,000 people.  This ancient city is, of course, the location of the beautiful modern city of Thessaloniki, and maybe some of you have been so blessed as to visit this place.  So they go into Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews.  Verse 2:

 

2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths (did what?) reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 

3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” 

Christianity is a reasoned faith.  Paul “reasoned with them from the Scriptures.”  He challenged them to look at the Scriptures, to look at their Bibles, and to think about what the Scriptures taught about Jesus Christ.  The Bible says that Paul’s reasoning consisted of—verse 3—“explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.’”

 

Paul taught the Thessalonians about the suffering, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  From the Old Testament Scriptures, Paul taught them that Christ “had to suffer.”  And He did.  Sometimes people erroneously say, “Why didn’t Jesus just get off the cross and show everyone He was God.”  Answer: the Christ had to suffer.

 

Paul taught the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ.  Substitutionary atonement sounds like a mouthful.  In five words: “Jesus Christ in my place.”  Jesus died on the cross to take care of my sins.  He had to suffer in order to take the punishment I deserved.  He willingly laid down His life.  Nobody forced Him.  He said in John 10:18, “No one takes My life from Me.  I lay it down Myself.  I lay it down.  I take it up.”

 

There are several Old Testament Scriptures Paul may have used in the synagogue when he was reasoning with the Thessalonians for those three Sabbaths, teaching about the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ.  He probably used Psalm 2:2, “The rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed,” and Psalm 16:10 to describe Christ’s resurrection, “You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption” or Psalm 22:16 to describe the crucifixion, “They pierced My hands and My feet.”  Surely Paul would have used Isaiah 53 to explain how Jesus died in our place.  Is there a better text than Isaiah 53:4-6?

 

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

 

Paul reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead.  Friend, Christ had to suffer for you.  He willingly died for your sins.  The Bible says in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Jesus takes the punishment you deserved.  He dies for your sin problem so that you may live if you believe on Him and trust Him as your Lord and Savior.  Did the Thessalonians believe Paul’s message?  Verse 4:

 

4 And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. 

 

Some believed and several joined the missionary team.  They joined together with Paul and Silas.

 

Christianity is a reasoned faith.  You don’t throw your intellect aside and take a blind leap in the dark.  You have to think.  You read the Scriptures and you understand that this problem you have is called sin and that Jesus Christ takes care of your problem on the cross.  He died for your sin and was raised for your justification.  The resurrection is God the Father’s way of saying, “I approve of the death of Jesus Christ as sufficient payment for your sin.  I approve and to demonstrate that I approve I am raising Christ from the dead.”

 

Why is all this talk about Christianity being a reasoned faith so important?  If you don’t use your head and study the Scriptures you may be susceptible to error and heresy.  I read where Oprah Winfrey on her “Oprah and Friends” program is promoting a year-long course on the New Age teachings of A Course on Miracles.  A Course on Miracles is a book full of false teachings, a book that goes against the Bible, teaching the New Age worldview which includes the belief that there is no sin, no evil and no devil.  It is a book that is supposed to be a “new revelation from Jesus” who supposedly delivered his channeled teachings in 1965 to a professor of Medical Psychology at Columbia University.  The book asserts false beliefs such as, “a slain Christ has no meaning” and “Do not make the pathetic error of ‘clinging to the old rugged cross.’”  Of the biblical view of the atonement, the book asserts: “The atonement…teaches that, never having sinned, (man) has no need of salvation.”

 

Good night, I know I’m a sinner by experience alone.  Don’t tell me I’ve never sinned.  I know better.  But more importantly, whether I admit it or not, the Bible authoritatively declares that I am a sinner and that this is precisely why Christ died for me.

 

Christianity is a reasoned faith.  Number two:

 

II.  Christianity is a Resisted Faith (5-9)

 

5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 

 

So there were some folks from Oprah and Friends, I mean some Jews, who didn’t like what Paul was teaching.  They resisted the message and resisted with a vengeance.  They got some of the riff-raff from the marketplace, gathered a mob, and tried to turn the city against the house of this guy named Jason, who was apparently allowing Paul and the missionaries to stay with him.  Verse 6:

 

6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.  7 “Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king — Jesus.” 

 

That was a pretty serious charge.  Roman citizens gave their allegiance to Caesar.  He was their only king.  But they speak the truth here.  There is another king and His name is Jesus.  But He’s a different kind of king.  As Jesus Himself tried to explain to Pilate in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world.”  But no time to explain all of that.  The jealous Jews are stirring up the crowd in resistance to the Gospel.  Verse 8:

 

8 And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. 

9 So when they had taken security (that’s like a bond; money) from Jason and the rest, they let them go. 

 

Christianity is a resisted faith.  You will face resistance when you share the Gospel.  You will face resistance at work, at school, in your family, and in your community.  Always remember 2 Timothy 3:12, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”  That’s part and parcel to living in a world cursed by sin.  Expect it. Remember that Jesus and His followers faced persecution and so you are in very good company!

Christianity is a reasoned faith.  Christianity is a resisted faith.  Number three, remember:

 

III.  Christianity is a Received Faith (10-15)

 

We become Christians by receiving Jesus Christ into our lives and we learn about Jesus Christ in the Scriptures, in the Bible.  Those of you reading through A Theology for the Church in our theological reading groups are presently reading about “general revelation,” the way God reveals Himself through nature and conscience.  And while God reveals Himself in the beauty of His creation, our knowledge of creation is insufficient to save us.  What we need is the “special revelation” of Scripture, the special revelation called the Holy Bible which rightly interprets the general revelation we see all around us.  So when we read or hear the teaching from special revelation, from the Bible, we may receive the things we read and hear as true, thus receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  Watch this happen in the next verses.  Verse 10:

 

10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 

 

Okay, so Paul and Silas are hurried out of Thessalonica and they go to Berea.  Remember what Jesus said to His disciples in the Gospels?  Matthew 10:23, “When they persecute you in this city, flee to another.”  So Paul and Silas flee to Berea, a smaller city about 40 miles to the south.  I love what we read about the Bereans!  Verse 11:

 

11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. 

 

That’s an awesome statement!  The Bereans were “more fair-minded” or “more noble” than the Thessalonians.  Why?  Because “they received the word with all readiness,” or “eagerness,” and, “searched the Scriptures”—how frequently?—“daily to find out whether these things were so.”  They studied the Word!

 

The word translated “searched” there in verse 11 is a word that can be translated “examined.”  It is a word that means to “sift through evidence,” like a lawyer carefully examining the evidence of a case.

 

How many Bereans do we have here at First Baptist Church?  How many of you have your Bibles open right now?  Raise your hands.  There’s a Berean.  There’s a Berean…Berean…Berean…Berean.  Turn to your neighbor and say, “You’re a Berean!”

 

What was the result of their studying the Scriptures?  Verse 12 and following:

 

12 Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. 

13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds (resistance again!)

14 Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there. 

15 So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed.

 

Christianity is a received faith.  We become Christians by receiving Christ into our lives which happens only when we receive the Word into our hearts.  The Bereans “received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”

 

In Greek scholar A.T. Robertson’s commentary on verse 11 this statement appears: “The Bereans were eagerly interested in the new message of Paul and Silas but they wanted to see it for themselves.  What a noble attitude.  Paul’s preaching made Bible students of them.”

 

Paul’s preaching made Bible students of them.  True preaching is teaching.  True preaching makes Bible students of a congregation.  We are to be like the Bereans; students of the Word, not believing something just because someone is supposedly quoting from the Bible, but because we are checking it out in our open Bibles on our laps.  We are reading through a passage together, studying together, verse-by-verse wherever possible, seeing “whether these things are so.”

 

Paul’s preaching made Bible students of them.  May that be said of us here at First Baptist Church.  May we endeavor to be students of the Word, searching the Scriptures daily—daily!

 

  • Stand for prayer.

 

If you study the Scriptures you will see that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead.  What Paul preached 2,000 years ago was true.  There is no other way to get into heaven, no other way to have eternal life, no other way to get right with God.  There is no biblical salvation in the New Age Movement, no biblical salvation in Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, or Scientology.  The Bible says in Acts 4:12, “Neither is their salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”  No other name but the name of Jesus and no other atonement than the substitutionary atonement, Christ’s taking your sin upon Himself and granting to you His righteousness.  He took what was ours: sin.  He gave what was His: righteousness.  Trust Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior this morning.