Turning the World Upside Down

Notes:

Introduction:

Maps of Paul to Thessalonica

100 miles from Philippi

First city was Capital of first District of Macedonia

Thessalonica was Capital of Second District

Probably stayed there for several month

Defending the Christ

v. 3=Proving: Lit, “Place beside.”

Proving from Scripture that:

The Christ must suffer, die and rise

Jesus was this Christ

It was necessary the Christ must Die and Rise

Looking at the Old Testament...

Similar Message of Jesus

“The Christ must suffer, die and rise.”

Luke 9:22 “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.””

Luke 24:26-27 “26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

The Christ must suffer, die and rise

Old Testament Passages:

The World would Reject the Lord and again his Anointed!

Psalm 2:1-3 “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”

Psalm 110:1 “The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.””

Psalm 118:22 “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

Isaiah 60:1-3 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

Isaiah 53:3 “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Isaiah 53:4 “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

Isaiah 53:10 “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”

Early Church Interpretation:

Psalm 40:6-8 “6 In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. 7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: 8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.””

Hebrews 10:5-7 “5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ””

Let’s all agree, shall we, that the Christ needed to suffer...

Look at the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament! The whole thing was built around death and life...

But there’s a second hurtle… Jesus was the Christ!

2. Jesus was this Christ!

This Christ was Jesus!!

But, Paul would have talked with the disciples. He heard the stories! Jesus himself met Paul!

Deut 21:22-23: “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.”

1. Israel as Kingdom=Peter preached about David, i.e. Kingdom.

2. Paul may have heard the disciples share that Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1 on the cross:

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?”

3. Paul would have heard about the curtain ripped in two the moment Jesus died!

4. Or when the dead came out of the tomb when Jesus died...

5. Or how Jesus would forgive sins just by saying the words, “Your sins are forgiven.”

6. Or how Jesus kept preaching about this alternative Kingdom...

This Jesus guy was the promised Christ! All the signs were there, we just didn’t see it!

Before this sermon:

Defending Jesus led to two opposite reactions:

Some believed and started a church!

Some went to insight violence and imprisonment against these new Christians.

Gospel’s bipolar response…

Two Accusations by the Mob

5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

Jews gather together a mob to start a riot.

NIV= “started a riot” vs. ESV: “set the city in an uproar”

Mixed reaction of the Jews

Brought before ‘the crowd’=demos.

v. 6: Dragged before the city authorities politarchai, 5-6 officials.

Press PAUSE:

Paul and Silas and some new Christians dragged to the City Council

Jews whispering to rabble rousers: “You know what they said about your mom?”

!!Jealousy led to CHAOS!!

Jealousy led to Chaos:

First accusation: “These men are turning our world upside down”

ESV: Hardly criticize the ESV for embellishment, but in this case it does a little...

Not an accurate translation:

NIV: ‘These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here.’

Stott=more about revolution, “radical social upheaval.”

Irony: Paul and Silas brought the message of the Kingdom: The declaration of the Prince of Peace and hope for the world.

Those who wanted to protect religion are the ones who incited the mob.

Those who were jealous that that group was growing fast than the other.

The devoutly religious became the provocateurs! Why? Because of jealousy...

Irony of the Passage:

The Message of the Gospel: The Christ is Alive and that Christ is Jesus! That message didn’t actually stir up the mob this time. In Philippi, slave owners accused Paul and Silas with the following (v. 21): “They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.”

But in this case, it was the religiously proud who caused chaos.

Jealousy caused chaos

False religion caused chaos.

Social influence caused chaos.

Fear of change caused chaos.

Holding on to obsolete beliefs and values caused chaos.

Lies caused chaos.

Obviously the message of the Gospel wasn’t meant to bring harm, but people got in the way from the pure witness of the Gospel!

The Gospel may cause frustration, but the point of that frustration is to DISRUPT OUR SIN, EXPOSE OUR SIN, and QUESTION COMPETING ALLEGIANCES:

Chaos in this World:

Two weeks ago thought that the way to preserve white culture was to kill black people. He wanted to fix “replacement theory” by the process of literal elimination. EVIL.

Video went viral about a pastor who admitted to committing adultery. After he gave this heart-felt confession, a married couple walk up to the front and took the microphone. The women started off by saying, "For 27 years, I lived in a prison. It was not 20 years," said the woman, who described herself as a victim of Lowe's. "I was just 16...” After she and her husband spoke, the service ended with a group of people surrounding the pastor with a prayer circle. The pastor...

On Monday the news broke out about the Southern Baptist Conventions 20 year cover up of sexual abuse. Russell Moore who left the SBC over this issue months ago wrote this past week: “I was wrong to call sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) a crisis. Crisis is too small a word. It is an apocalypse.” Praise the work of our J.D. Greer just down the road at the Summit who had the courage to speak up about this cover up.

And then, on Tuesday afternoon, news breaks about another school shooting. Forth graders. 19 children, two teachers, shot and killed by a troubled 18 year old!!

They are socially and politically dangerous:

Bullying, background checks, racism, sexism, abuse.

The Gospel turns the Gospel upside down

HOW?

My heart is broken

They are ‘socially and politically dangerous’

How far are we willing to uphold values that stand apart from the Gospel?

Second Accusation: They are all acting against the Decrees of Caesar, saying there is an alternative King

Thessanolica: received status as ‘free city’ “through loyalty to the emporer” Larkin. They don’t want to jeapordize their position with Rome.

“In A.D. 49 Claudius expelled Jews from Rome because of public disturbances in the Jewish community at the instigation of “Chrēstus”(Suetonius Claudius 25.4; see comment at Acts 18:3).” Larkin

Jews caused issues around this time.

People can’t handle the truth of Jesus as the King!

WE can’t handle it…