The Kingdom Advances Backwards

INTRO

Bruce

Block Parties - 3:30-6:30, Kingsley Commons (tomorrow), Wadsworth (Thursday) CSM team

Soccer tournament - Saturday at Graham Rd Elem. from 10-3, prize for the winner. Even if you don’t play, come support your friends!

Sports Camp - No YA next Tuesday! Volunteer instead (5-8:15pm),

$10 tip jar donation if you eat dinner here (once a month)

Try not to park on Rosemary, across Graham Rd (Rice St. and Tyler Ave. are better), and regardless where you park, please don’t encroach on peoples’ driveways… we want to love our neighbors here.

UPSIDE DOWN SERIES:

To turn the world upside down, we must value the most what the world values the least.

“Man, how can I even think about flipping the world upside down when I feel like my world is upside down?”

Maybe you’re here tonight and that’s how you feel. You feel like your world is upside down or that your life is moving backwards when everyone around you is moving forwards.

you thought graduating would bring direction, but instead it brought confusion.

you thought accepting Jesus would bring you peace, but you feel more anxious now than ever.

some of you in this room are immigrants, friends or family members of immigrants, I know many of you are here on a visa, and you’re feeling like your life is being flipped upside down right now.

All of those feelings are real, they’re heartfelt, and they make it difficult for you to even consider what it might look like for YOU to flip the world upside.

But I want to explore this question with you tonight: What if when everything feels backwards, that’s where God is doing His best work?

We want to be a people who turn the world upside down, but the reality is, we can’t do that unless we follow a God who is able to flip our world upside down.

What an encouragement it is: Our God is in the business of doing things in ways that we do not understand.

The Scripture says, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong…”

God’s primary means of working in this world is seen as foolishness, it doesn’t make sense, it seems backwards. But when everything around you feels like it’s moving backwards, that’s when God is moving forward.

SLIDE

The title of tonight’s message is “The Kingdom Advances Backwards.” We see this very clearly in Acts 8, where we’ll be tonight.

We pick up immediately after the murder of Stephen. As we read it, you will catch glimpses of the faithfulness of God, and you will hear the echoes of Joseph sitting in ancient Egypt, proclaiming, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…..”

SLIDE

When you feel like your life is moving backwards:

God is:

Pushing you forward

Planting the Gospel

Producing Great Joy

Open your Bibles to Acts 8.

Let’s learn some cool things about God.

SLIDE

Acts 8:1–8 ESV

1 And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. 4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. 5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. 6 And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. 7 For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was much joy in that city.

God is pushing you forward

SLIDE

To get a clearer picture of Acts 8:1 we really have to go all the way back to Genesis 1.  The very first command in the Bible, verse 28 — “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

SLIDE

Humanity has a bad habit of disobeying God. And in Genesis 11 you have the Tower of Babel, where humans are actively rebelling against this very command of God. Verse 4 —Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, [or else] we [will] be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

God said fill the earth, they said, “Naw we’re good.”

“No God, I’m going to stay right here, because this is where I feel comfortable.”

And maybe you feel pushed right now.

Pushed out of a relationship that gave you comfort.

Pushed out of a job that gave you security.

Pushed into a season of loneliness where it feels like no one gets you.

Maybe you feel like you’re being pushed backwards…

Listen, you may feel like you are being pushed backwards, but God is pushing you forward.

But God’s always pushes people toward the accomplishment of His will. That’s how powerful and capable God is.

It may look like things are falling apart, and maybe they are, but God doesn’t waste that pain. He doesn’t waste that discomfort. He redeems it and uses it to push you exactly where He wants you to be.

*That’s So Raven Illustration*

*There’s nothing that Raven can do to stop the outcome from happening; In the same way, there’s nothing that humanity can do to stop God’s ultimate will from playing out.*

He does not push people to sin. He does not push people to do evil. They choose to do that freely on their own. But God is in such control that, despite humanity’s disobedience, He can still accomplish His will.

So that in all things, in all situations, both good and bad God is moving His kingdom forward by pushing you into the very place where His will can be accomplished.

So with the Tower of Babel, God confuses their language — they’re no longer speaking the same language, they can’t cooperate anymore — so they scatter and start to fill the earth, just as God had commanded them.

Acts 8 is another instance of this. Through the persecution brought to the church by Saul, Christians are scattering, and they’re bringing the glory and power of God with them.

God is planting the Gospel

Next point: When you feel like your life is moving backwards, God is planting the Gospel.

SLIDE

Acts 8:4–5 ESV

4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. 5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.

I love this.

These people were sharing the Gospel in Jerusalem, which is why they were being persecuted.

Then they flee, they run away from their homes, mourning the death of their friend Stephen.

leaving everything that they know behind because of the fear that Saul instilled in them by murdering their friend, by imprisoning their fellow believers.

But when they leave Jerusalem, they continue to do the exact same thing that got them persecuted in the first place.

They continued to preach the Gospel. So that now people who didn’t live in Jerusalem were hearing the news of Christ’s death and resurrection and its implications on their lives and their eternity.

It is through the persecution that God brings the Gospel into pockets of the world that otherwise would not have heard it.

This is poetic. Saul was trying to put out this fire before it spread.

Instead, he’s responsible for the spread of Christianity in at least two ways.

Put out a grease fire with water. The very act of trying to put out the fire caused the fire to spread even worse than it already was. (Gospel 1 ; Saul 0)

Jesus meets Saul on the Road to Damascus, Saul converts to Christianity - is now named Paul - and he becomes arguably the greatest missionary to ever live. And certainly one of the greatest theologians to ever live, having authored much of the New Testament and being responsible for much of our understanding of God’s grace.

As I was meditating on this passage, I was asking myself, “what would cause somebody to keep doing something that they know has brought death, that they know will cause them trouble and hardship?

As I was thinking about this, the Lord brought John 16:33 to mind. Where Jesus is telling the disciples that they will be persecuted.

Jesus says, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart for I have overcome the world.”

They believed this. They watched Jesus flip the world upside down at Calvary, where Jesus, the Son of God who knew no sin - lived without sin - and therefore did not deserve the consequence of sin (which the Scripture teaches as death), willingly took that consequence upon Himself for your sake. So He took your sin and put it on His shoulders while taking His righteousness and draping it over your shoulders.

At Calvary, God took the cross, the Roman symbol of defeat and humiliation, and he flipped it; turning it into the sign of victory and jubilation. Of hope and of reconciliation. Of new life and restoration.

Jesus transformed the cross from being something you were ashamed of, something you wanted to avoid, into something that you wear proudly on your neck.

When you feel like everything around you is moving backwards, God is pushing you forward

And when God is pushing you forward, He’s planting the Gospel.

But He’s not just planting the Gospel through you… He’s planting the Gospel IN YOU! in those very moments when your life feels upside down

The very place where your heart is broken, that’s where God wants to give you hope.

The very place where your anxiety overwhelms you, that’s where God wants to bring you peace.

And when God plants the Gospel IN you, THEN He can plant the Gospel through you.

You might not feel like a missionary, but the pain you experience as you watch your life fall apart, as you watch your friends mover away, as you watch that promotion be given to someone else, as you receive that rejection letter in the mail, as you watch your loved ones grow sick, as you being to lose hope, that pain you experience might very well be your platform.

I’m no different than any of you in the room tonight. I know that at times you feel like your life is moving backwards. Because I’ve felt at times that my life is moving backwards. I still feel that sometimes, and my main coping mechanism is to put my head down and keep trudging along. To try and force my life to go forwards. To keep running on this hamster wheel that’s getting me nowhere. And I know many of you feel that too.

You’re serving God, but your mental health is hanging on by a thread, while that person over there is living opposite of the ways of God and is thriving.

You’re praying for clarity, but your life just gets more and more confusing.

You’re trying to walk in purity, but you keep tripping.

My friends, I am telling you today, that it is in these places where God shows up the most.

It’s in those exact moments—when you feel lost, tired, or disqualified—when you feel like your life is moving backwards—that God is writing His best stories.

God doesn’t wait for your life to look perfect before He works. God doesn’t wait for you to jumpstart your own life and start moving it in the right direction before He works. No. He does the opposite of what the world would do. He meets you in the mess, and He rewrites your story to bring Him His glory.

And now your pain, the place where the Gospel was planted deeper into your heart, becomes a platform for others to see the hope that you have in a God that met you at your lowest point.

God is in the business of flipping the world upside down and turning what the world thinks is bad and using it to advance His kingdom for your good and for His glory.

God is in control. And because of this the Gospel was planted into the hearts of each of those believers who experienced persecution, and then it was planted in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and in Northern Virginia.

God is producing great joy

Where the Gospel is, there too is salvation. Where there is salvation, there too is Jesus. And where there is Jesus is the fullness of joy.

Last point: When you feel like your life is moving backwards, God is producing great joy.

Acts 8:6–8 ESV

6 And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. 7 For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was much joy in that city.

The scattering of Christians brought the Gospel.

The planting of the Gospel brought freedom, healing, and joy.

This is what God promises.

Remember, God does not waste pain. God does not waste persecution.

When everything seems backwards—when everything feels like it's falling apart—God is quietly, steadily moving His kingdom forward by flipping everything upside down.

He’s not just moving His kingdom forward, but He’s moving your life forward too.

He’s not just redeeming history, He’s redeeming YOUR story.

He sets you free from the things that hold you captive.

He heals you in the places where you’re most sick and broken.

He gives you joy in the places of despair.

God is producing great joy, not the kind of joy that comes when everything feels like it’s going right, God is producing the kind of joy that comes from knowing Jesus even when everything in life is going wrong.

That’s Acts 8 in a nutshell. Everything seemed like it was going wrong, but God was redeeming it to advance His kingdom and to give you an opportunity to personally experience His love and grace today.

Look at Acts 8:1 again.

Acts 8:1 says, “And Saul approved of [Stephen’s] execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and [all the church was] scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.”

SLIDE

Now, if you’ve been paying attention, this verse should sound familiar to you. Think back all the way to probably the second or third sermon of this Upside Down series. I want you to catch this. If you take Acts 8:1, and flip it—SLIDE—upside down, if you will— you get Acts 1:8. What does Acts 1:8 say? It says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 8:1 is the very means by which God is fulfilling the words of Jesus in Acts 1:8. God has taken a terrible situation, the execution of Stephen, which caused the fleeing of Christians. They scattered. And where did they go? They went from Jerusalem to Judea and to Samaria, just as Jesus said they would.

God took a situation that looked backwards, and He advanced His kingdom forwards. 

My friends, you can flip the world upside down, even when it feels like your life is moving backwards, because God is already flipping the world upside down. He’s already taking terrible situations and redeeming them for good. He’s already taking moments of hopelessness and providing everlasting hope. He’s already taking your life, which seems like it’s moving backwards at times, and He’s propelling you forward exactly to the place where He wants you for you to experience hope, healing, and joy and for His glory to be known in the world.

God is faithful!

If your life feels like it’s falling apart, I want you to seriously consider this question: what if God is actually moving you forward? What if the places that feel like loss are where God is about to plant joy in your life?

If you haven’t trusted Jesus, if you’re still on the fence about this whole Christianity things, today’s the day to stop going backward with the world and start moving forward with the Kingdom.

What are you waiting for? You have to make a choice, it’s one or the other. Unless you put your faith in Jesus, your life will always be moving backwards. But when you do put your faith in Jesus, and trust that He died in your place to save your from your sins, your life will always be moving forward.

If you’re a follower of Jesus, this is your reminder: the Kingdom advances backwards. So don’t measure God’s faithfulness by how easy life feels.

Don’t measure God’s faithfulness by how viral someone’s heavily curated reel about their picture perfect life went. Measure it by the cross. Measure it by the empty tomb. Measure it by the presence of the Holy Spirit who lives in you. When everything around you feels like it’s moving backwards, God is moving forward—so plant your feet, fix your eyes on Jesus, and let Him move you with Him.

Let’s pray.

Discussion Questions:

How do you typically respond when life feels like it’s going backwards? How does this passage challenge or encourage you?

In what areas of your life do you need to remember that God is still in control?

Are there moments in your life when you were tempted to think God had forgotten you—but now you see He was working all along?

How can we be more intentional about bringing Jesus with us when we are “scattered” during the week?