Turn the World Upside Down
January 3, 2021
Preached by Nate Phillips
Scripture Reading
Acts 17:1-15
1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. 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.” 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. 9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. 14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there.15 Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.
On December 9, 1860, in a sermon on Jeremiah 4:20, Charles Haddon Spurgeon gives this stirring, beautiful, and convicting exhortation:
Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies; and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay, and not madly to destroy themselves. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.
Let us pray.
We read this quote or we hear it and we think that it sounds nice, we might even frame it and hang it in an office or a living room wall. We might feel the weight of this statement and realize what this means, but more often than not, I fear that we go on about our daily lives living them as if this statement was furthest from the truth. And I believe that we do this, you and me, because we do not want it to be true. All around this nation and in this world there is this belief that if God is love then people cannot go to hell because a loving God cannot possibly send anyone to hell, but have these people or even ourselves stepped back and wondered that maybe it was our imperfect understanding of God’s love that makes us uncomfortable? Sin, death, and hell are always hard topics. We understand sin quite well but we can’t really say we know much about death and hell seems to be this place that is a fairytale land. Media makes movies about the devil, the catholic church believes you can get out of it with enough good works, and really honestly the eternal suffering is hard- so we just kinda push it to the side. And because we push this to the side we push really knowing God to the side. And because we don’t believe right things about hell or even God, we don’t force people to leap over our dead bodies and drag themselves out of our arms to go to hell. We sit idly by and watch them meander their way into an eternity apart from the one true and holy God.
And in addition to all this my fear is that 2020 did not show the world a Christian community that is willing to face discomfort with open arms in order to serve their neighbor and love others but rather it showed our nation and maybe the world that we are so concerned with our individual comforts, rights, and freedoms, that we have forgotten about the demands of Jesus in his gospels. To love our neighbors and turn the other cheek. To honor Ceasar and be faithful to God. We have sacrificed gospel doctrine and gospel living for the sake of comfort. And I am not just speaking to people who have chosen to not wear masks during this pandemic. I am speaking to all of us because when I look around, I include myself in this, I don’t see a church that is passionate about letting the gospel spread which requires one to lay down their rights, I’m seeing a church that is holding onto their rights and letting the gospel fade. I do not believe that this is specific to community evangelical free church of Harrisburg in the 21st century but rather I think it speaks to people in all places and at all times. As we will see in the text this morning.
Now you might be wondering why you chose to come to church this morning or you might be tempted to log off the live stream by now. I understand that these words are hard and maybe they are not nice and pray that I am not sinning nor creating strife by sharing these words, but as I read through the text I believed that there was a purpose to what Luke is sharing in Acts and what Paul is saying through 1st Thessalonians. There is hard, but I also see so much beauty. I see beauty because the gospel is present in these words and the gospel takes hold of the most unsuspecting people and flips their lives upside down. Enemies of God can become children of God.
Let us jump into the text this morning.
Context
Paul has arrived in Thessalonica which is the capital city of Macedonia and had a population of about 2,000 people. He is now on his second missionary journey. He had received a vision from Jesus urging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us” Acts 16:9. Thessalonica was a free city in the Roman Empire. They controlled their own affairs and political situations. This was not common as many cities were under Roman rule with military occupations and local roman governments setup.
When Paul arrived in a new place he had the custom to start by teaching in the synagogues. He had an advantage here because he was Jewish. Because he used to Pharisee and because he spent his life before Christ attempting to be the best Jew one could be.(Phil. 3:4-8). The text says that Paul was there for three sabbaths or what we would understand as three weeks. This would be the initial visit. All in all Paul spent four to six months in Thessalonica. Paul had a burden for the people. For even after fleeing he kept his people there to give him report and you see his love for this church in the books of the New Testament 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. He wanted them to have a correct understanding of the Gospel and to live in light of right and true biblical doctrine.
Because Christ suffered for us we should take joy in suffering for Christ.
Because Christ suffered for us we ought to take joy in his suffering. He didn’t die for mundane lives or apathy but died so that we would find joy in him. The issue that I see facing most Christian’s today is that we try to find joy in the things that Christ has given to us. Whether that be food, drink, relationships, sex, family, etc. We take the good things that God has given to us and we turn them into idols by believing that they will give a greater joy than we could receive from God. By doing this we believe that God is distant and does not care about our day to day, moment to moment, intimate details to vague details of our lives. He created and stepped back. Now you might say that you don’t believe that, but the reality is that you do. You might know that God is good and that everything you have has been given by him. But just because you know does not mean that you believe. If you believed the true things you know about God you would put those two things together and find joy in the right things of God.
Some people in this passage put the two together and found joy in Christ. But others did not. Others chose to live for their own comfort to worship their own idols.
A. We can live for our own comfort and worship our own idols.
2021 will probably hold a few firsts for Emily and myself. Early in spring we will be welcoming our first child, a little boy whom we are naming Haddon after Charles Haddon Spurgeon and we hope to purchase our first home. We will spend time with family and hopefully will gather with friends at restaurants and in each other’s homes. This sounds like a pretty good year. By the world’s standards we are well on our way to owning a nice home, driving new cars, and in PA’s standards having a hunting camp somewhere up north in the woods. We are well on our way to fulfilling the American Dream and living a life of comfort. But I think this is the issue. As I have stated before and have said it to many people that I believe the biggest issue in American Christianity is we live for comfort. But I don’t think this is a modern Christian issue, I know that this has been an issue for centuries amongst Christians. When I was in seminary I wrote a paper on the stylites which were a group of Simeon monks around AD 390. They believed that the closer you were to God physically the closer you would be to God literally so they had this practice of building big towers on which they would stand. They would then rely on others to bring food. They were aesthetic monks meaning that they removed themselves from culture and from the comforts of life. People looked up to them as the example. They saw an issue of worldly comforts and believed the result was to completely remove themselves from the comforts. Removing oneself from the comforts of this life is not unique to the aesthic monks of the third century but we can see this in our own culture. For example the topic of Alcohol has a wide variety of opinions in the church and many think that there opinion is the correct opinion. The church saw an issue with drunkness and the affect that alcohol was having on the culture or is having on the culture and the response was to move to complete opposite end of the spectrum and declare that all use of alcohol regardless of getting drunk or not is sinful. The church has seen an issue with a comfort of life and has chosen to do something about it.
Move to the other side
There are also groups of Christians the argue becasue they have freedom in Christ they are able to enjoy this things, alcohol, food, sex, etc. without much restraint. Because Jesus died for us they say we can enjoy these without consequence. So what you get is a group of Christians who go to the brewery and drink to the point of drunkenness or close to it. Or using swear words as just as normal as any other part of language. Both are wrong. For the first God has called us to have dominion over creation. He has given every good thing as a gift to his people to enjoy and to experience him through. The second is wrong because Jesus didn’t die so we could continue on sinning. You have been baptized into his death and raised with him to new life. Walk in that newness.
Our core issue is not comfort- the issue is belief.
When we choose not to believe true things about God then we end up worshipping our own comfort and our own idols.
We as a world have chosen each day to wake up and choose to find purpose, identity, joy, belonging in the good gifts that God has given not in God himself. In one of my favorite books called Gospel Fluency the author Jeff Vanderstelt offers a helpful practice to see how our issue is belief. He calls it fruit to root and this is what he says about what we believe affects everything we do, say or think.
So therefore our other option is to...
1. We can love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves. Giving up our lives for the sake of the Gospel.
Salvation is a wonderful mystery. If you are a believer think back to that moment when you believed for the first time. In that very instance the Lord took your heart of stone and gave you a heart of flesh.
This... Changes your mind & Places your strength in the work of Christ
The natural result of this is to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.
As I said in my introduction my fear is that 2020 was a year that showed the world that we care about ourselves. That we are not willing to lay down our preferences for the greater good of our brothers and sisters. I know the response is much more diverse than that as I have been deeply ingrained in the church and have seen people on both sides of the argument when it comes to masks, racial injustice, and the election, choose to love Jesus and honor their brother and sister who see differently. But I also am surrounded by people who are not a part of a church or who do not consider themselves Christians and they have come to see Christians as a people who are more concerned about who is in the white house than loving the people around them. We cannot be known for this. If we are known for this we are using Jesus as a political idol just as the Jews did during the three years of Jesus’ ministry. Some of the Jews saw Jesus for who he really was, but others saw him as a political savior. He had come to save them from the oppression of the Roman government. But Jesus didn’t come to save them from the Romans. Jesus came to earth to save people from the sin that seeks to destroy them.
He came to liberate us from a different kingdom. A kingdom of darkness that does not bring life but rather death and not a finality of death but rather an eternal death. So when Jesus saves us and gives us a new life his first command is to love the Lord our God with all our soul, mind, and strength. This results in true belief, a new heart, and a new identity. Because of that we can and we must choose to look at those around us and fulfill the second greatest commandment. To love our neighbor as ourselves.
Paul understood this. In verse 9 money is taken from Jason as a security. Meaning that the money would be forfeited if Paul and his companions caused more trouble. So to protect Jason and to continue to allow there to be a gospel witness they leave and head to Berea. Paul could have chosen to say that the message that they have is so important that Jason should just eat the loss and be thankful for the opportunity, but Paul and his companions show wisdom and gentleness here. When I lived in KC there was a large middle eastern population as it was a refugee city and many students would come to study at the local universities. We would go to local coffee shops and strike up conversations with these students. One of the first times I had a conversation about Christianity with one of these students who were often Muslim the first words out of my mouth were “Jesus is God”. Is the statement false? No. But was it wise for me to lead with that? No. It was extremely offensive and I immediately lost my audience with these students. This call to all of us to be gentle and wise. Don’t force your agenda just because your message is true.
2. Because Christ rose from the dead we are required to have a response.
You can sit here and choose to listen and think that what I am saying sounds nice or maybe makes sense or is good for others but not necessarily for you. But because Christ rose from the dead we are required to have a response. The Jews in Thessalonica showed a response of refusing the claims of Christ and his apostles. But the Jews of Berea chose to believe. There is not a third option. You are either a child of God or an enemy of God.
We can choose to give up our lives for the sake of the Gospel and gain the greatest gift of knowing and loving God.
3. We can choose to refuse the claim v. 5-9
The Jew’s do not like what is happening in the city and seek to bring Paul and his companions before the civic assembly. Obviously they got wind of it and left.
The issue was that the missionaries were proclaiming the kingdom of God and this was rivaling the kingdom of Caesar. They did not want to let go of their idols. They would have rather served a human king. A king they could see and hear. A king that was easy to believe in. But this king they believed in would one day die and he would stay dead. Are you like the Jews? Have you placed your hope in a man or a man made system? If Christ came back today would you recognize as your God?
You have a choice this day.
As....
4. The Spirit leads us to know the truth of the Gospel allowing us to accept this message. Verse 2-4, 10-12.
Early in his arrival Paul claims that only the Messiah was appointed to suffer and rise again from the dead. And what happened during the three weeks was that only some Jews believed but there were many gentile converts. It emphasizes the women because of the culture. Macedonian women, according to scholars, had a well earned reputation for their independence and enterprising spirit. If they believed, it was their own decision not something their husbands decided for them.
Later in the passage in verse 10-12 Paul has gone to the Jew’s at Berea. There was a much different reception. The Bereans took the claims of Paul and assessed them with biblical text they had. Their hearts were not hard and they accepted the message of the gospel with eagerness.
In our Community Groups we have been going through the book The Gospel by Ray Ortlund. I’ve greatly enjoyed this book and have loved the discussion that has come out of it. For the longest time I believed that the Gospel was a thing for me to become a Christian and then after that it didn’t mean much. But what I have come to see is that the Gospel is not for one moment in life but rather it is for all of life. The Gospel is the good news of Jesus. The news that all of us were dead in transgressions, and destined for an eternity apart from him in hell. It is the news that we are not good, that none of us will ever be good enough to save ourselves. It is the news that death is not the final say. Jesus came and lived the life that you and I could never live. He was a baby, a little boy, a teenager, and adult and he never sinned. He continually submitted himself to the will of father and was laser focused on that tree. The gospel is the good news that Jesus died the death that we should have died. That his blood was shed and his heart stopped beating. It is the good news that he was buried in a tomb. It is the good news that he was dead. Because death does not have the final say. Because death does not win. Because death did not hold him back. It is the good news that on the third day he rose from the dead and he didn’t bring our sin back to us, but he left our sin in that grave and that sin has stayed in that grave. It is the good news that he has given you and I a new heart, a new mind, and a new purpose. We no longer live for ourselves. We no longer live for the comfort in our everyday lives. We no longer live for the american dream. We must now have a kingdom dream that sends us out.
So what do we do about this?
1. Be intentional about having people help you believe the true things you know about God. What you believe about God will be the most important thing you ever do.
As a family gather at the table each night and talk about what each person knows about God and how they are believing or not believing these things.
Buy the book Gospel Fluency and go through it with a friend.
In your community groups when someone confesses how they are
struggling with work or with relationships ask them what they are believing
about God and then remind them of truths of the Gospel.
2. Evangelism & Discipleship
Evangelism is not just a good idea. It is a command given to us by Jesus in Matthew 28. Don’t just make this about sharing the Gospel but make this about discipleship. Meet with people regularly who don’t know Jesus and who do know Jesus. Study the bible with them and answer questions. Go door to door and get to know the neighbors of our church. We are a neighborhood church but how much of our neighborhood comes to church here? I have loved see more and more people walk down the streets to church on Sundays but what would it look like for many families, young saints and old saints alike to walk down these streets on Sunday? What would it look for the neighborhood you live in to gather in your dining room or your backyard to do life together and to study the bible? God is in the business of transforming people for his glory. Let’s all be instruments of that transformation.
3. Seek to serve your brothers and sisters in 2021.
Provide. Community groups are a great way to not just talk once a week about a book or church, but it is a great way to be a family. To provide for others when there is a need whether in the group or out of the group.
Serve here in church. There is much need for people to serve right now and really always. I lead the video and propresenter team here at church and there are some months where serve two or three times a month. I love to serve the church but it can be exhausting. We need to people to step up in many capacities to serve so that Community can continue to be a gospel presence. So that parents can sit in church and listen to the word. So that we can serve just as Christ served us. So if you don’t serve in any way we would ask sign up to be a greeter, hold babies, teach sunday school, count money, serve in the youth group. If this is something you want to do fill out the card in the pew back and put in the offering boxes and someone will get in contact with you.
4. Study the bible!
It is the living word of God given to us. It is useful. Let the Bereans set the example of taking what is taught assessing with the Word and believing the truth of it.
As theological liberalism takes hold in places people will try to challenge the Bible, but this word will never fail and it has stood the test of time and the scholars critical eye.
May we not be a people of comfort but may we be a people who say I have given up my life for the sake of the gospel. I have chosen to be last. I have chosen to honor Christ through the way that I live my life. May we be a people who live to turn the world upside down.
