Turning the World Right Side UP
Drumbeat of Love • Sermon • Submitted
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Paul’s ministry brought a Disturbance wherever he went
They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar
This quality is one which desperately needs to be rediscovered by Christians and the Church in our time
I believe the reason for the triumph and resultant trouble of Paul’s ministry is that he uncompromisingly preached the essential truth of the gospel: Christ the Messiah -the crucified resurrected, living Lord of all life
His message earned him the title of the upsetter of the whole world.
And so must we be
He wanted every person to know, experience, and respond to the living Christ
His message seldom dealt with the cultural or social complexities of the cities in which he preached
But wherever he went, the clear proclamation of the of the essential gospel cut deeply into social sickness, religious pride, and cultural intellectualism
He preached Christ
He did not go about with the image of the upsetter of the world
The implications of that reorienting dynamic brought confrontation with economic, ecclesiastical , and political injustice which resulted in disturbance throughout his ministry and eventually cost him his life
Paul’s Lord was the original conservative revolutionist
He called for a radical, to the root change and an absolutely new beginning
He demanded repentance, faith,, and obedience to him
Then in response to Him, his people were challenged to evaluate everything in life and society
The result has always been literally upsetting people’s lives, and their whole world, are turned upside down
Philippi was turning economics upside down
Philippi was turning economics upside down
Philippi was a Roman colony
It was occupied by Roman Soldiers
The city had become a little Rome
Roman dress, language and customs dominated the life of this european city
It was an outpost of Rome and its citizens were given to Rights of Roman Citizenship
It had considerable political pride
It had a few Jews there, mostly woman
The Jews were probably not welcome there is one reason they were few
Paul proclaimed Christ to the Hebrew women and Lydia and others accepted Christ
But a Slave girl followed them and proclaimed Paul as a servant of the Most High God
This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”
She was demon possessed
She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
Now Paul was in trouble
He did not come to Philippi to clean up the practice of material gain from human sickness, he did what he simply had to do out of obedience to Christ
When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.
They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar
by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten.
After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.
Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
The gospel disturbed the city because Paul would not change his message or accept the accolades of the demons to use Satan’s power the do the Lord’s work
Philippi needed to be disturbed. So does Los Angeles, New York, Chicago or Williamsburg
Preach Christ, live life in him obediently, refuse a league with satanically induced social problems, and you will have a revolution
Thessalonica was turning religion upside down
Thessalonica was turning religion upside down
Here Paul confronted not only economic issues but religious pride
When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.
As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,” he said.
Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.
But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.
But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here,
and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.”
When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil.
Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.
This was a flourishing city with an excellent port
Here they had a Jewish synagogue and a large population of Jews
He used three methods: argument, explanation and proof
Paul did not go to Thessalonica to cause a revolution in the synagogue
He simply exposited the scriptures and proclaimed Christ as the Savior
That is sure to bring unsettling results in any religious instition
Luther did not intend to start a revolution, He just taught the Bible, Every religious institution forgets its purpose
What can a religious person do with his jealousy of another person who has superior depth and spiritual power
The only thing is to demean the self worth of the person causing the jealousy
Paul had turned the world upside down. Actually, his gospel was the only hope of setting the world right side up
But still a great church resulted
Athens was turning Philosophy upside down
Athens was turning Philosophy upside down
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.
So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
Here the opposition came from a different source. It was not economics or religious but Philosophical
The Epicurean,s asserted that happiness and pleasure were the principle aims of life
Everything happened by chance and the gods were remote and did not care so worry and concern made little difference so eat drink and enjoy
The Stoic’s were just the opposite
Everything was fated by the gods and life had to be lived according to nature without emotional intensity and involvement
The purpose of life was to accept nature and find one’s place in it
No wonder the Athenians were upset by Paul’s preaching of Christ and the Resurrection
They called him a babbler
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.
For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
Conclusion
We are called to be upsetters, people who turn the world upside down
To live Christ, to share christ, to help people to know him, and shape our entire lifestyle around Him that is our only purpose
Our world is already upside down in confusion and desperation without him
When he turns our own world right side up,he then calls us to do the same with the world around us